Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-05-Speech-2-176"
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"en.19991005.10.2-176"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Alavanos for giving me the opportunity to express for the first time the Commission’s concern for, and solidarity with, the population and the authorities of the Republic of Greece. The Prime Minister, Mr Simitis has made an appeal to us and your question, Mr Alavanos, supports this request for aid and solidarity from the European Union and passes it directly on to us.
Together with Mrs Diamantopoulou, we informed the Commission, this very afternoon, on what action is possible within the framework of the Structural Funds to provide support to Greece and to assist it in terms of reconstruction and repairs. I can confirm to the European Parliament that within the framework of the regulations of the Structural Funds, with the appropriations currently available, we are able to offer substantial support to those parts of the Greek population which have been affected. This is around 20,000 households, not to mention several hundred victims. I am now able to give the European Parliament the list of areas in which the regulations allow us to intervene as well as how the European Investment Bank envisages the way it will be done. The bank will make its decision on this at its board meeting on 7 December.
Yesterday evening in Tampere I met Mr Partas, the Greek Secretary of State for Regional Policy, in order to ask him to provide us as quickly as possible – and I know that it is difficult – with an assessment and the most accurate figures possible so that we can commit the appropriations which are available to us. This is the substance of the answer I wanted to give to Mr Alavanos.
Moving beyond compensation now, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Alavanos has asked a question which has always interested me – I am now thinking of the action that I took in my own country when I was Minister for the Environment, concerned with natural risks – the matter of prevention. Prevention is cheaper, always cheaper than having to repair things afterwards. My answer is yes, in a general way, without targeting any institution in particular, with the Structural Fund appropriations we can finance studies for the prevention of earthquake risk in Greece as well as other countries as long as the Greek Government asks us to.
Finally, as I have been talking about the lessons to be learnt from this natural disaster, I would also like to emphasise how seriously – and I have said this within the College – I take the idea of improving the coordination of different countries’ resources in terms of the civil defence of their people. Personally, I am in favour of the idea of a European civil defence force, which I believe will be extremely useful with regard to the citizens and the problems that still remain. The purpose of this force would be to work better together, more quickly and more visibly, in the event of a natural disaster, both within the territory of the European Union and elsewhere, and God knows, there is no shortage of disasters as current events show."@en1
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