In a report on the amendments to the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), the Government of the Azores highlights the "growing importance" of this support tool for European regions, allowing them "to cope with major catastrophes." The Government also defends specific rules for its implementation in Outermost Regions (ORs), given their increased vulnerability to natural catastrophes, especially archipelagos.

In the document submitted to the General-Directorate for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the heads of the European Parliament on the proposed amendment to the rules on EUSF, which is being analysed by EU institutions in a codecision procedure, the Government welcomes "the general goals to improve and streamline its response capacity" as well as "the introduction of the concept of regional natural disaster"; the latter aims to "increase the predictability and legal assurance in the mobilisation of this tool for the support to regions that are periodically hit by such disasters."

However, the Government conveyed its concern with the exclusion of a "previous reference to the specific situation of Outermost Regions" from Commission's proposal, which evidences "a clear disregard towards these Regions."

In this context, it defends that "the implementation of a comprehensive criterion based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be complemented with a special attention to the diversity of European territories, particularly with regard to the situation of Outermost Regions."

Furthermore, the Government of the Azores reminded that the "recognition of the vulnerability of Outermost Regions to natural disasters (...) arises from Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). According to which, the social and economical situation of Outermost Regions is precisely aggravated by the harsh terrain and climate of these Regions." In this regard, "the situation of large and geographically dispersed archipelagos, such as the Azores," should be taken into consideration, seeing that the possibility of "significant and serious damages on smaller and scarcely populated islands (...) may have a destabilising impact on reality of these islands as well as on their economic base."

Hence, the Regional Government defends that "the stipulated limit for damages caused by regional natural disasters (1.5% of GDP) should be (...) subject to a reduction in order to allow the EU to effectively contribute to the response capacity of regional authorities"; the amount proposed by the Region is set at "1% of the GDP of the affected region."

According to the regional position, the Fund should also be activated "whenever the effects of a natural disaster have a direct negative effect on an entire sector of activity or on a series of important infrastructures, such as ports, roads or airports, and in the situations when the impact on the reality of a specific a island prevents the immediate resumption of economic and social activities under normal conditions.”
 
In addition, the Regional Government also defends that the eligible actions taken by the EUSF "should include the possibility of funding not only for the recovery of infrastructures, but also for the improvement of their ability to resist future natural disasters." The Fund should be also activated in "the cases when the recovery of infrastructures is clearly insufficient or the change of their location is not justifiable in order to reduce or eliminate the risk of further damage caused by natural disasters."

Given the relevance of the arguments presented, the Regional Government expects that the European Parliament welcome a position that defends the specificities of ORs in its resolution on the amendment to EUSF, as it happened with negotiating position taken by Portugal under the works of the EU Council.

The Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions is also working on the preparation of a position for the joint defence of the interests of ORs among the European Commission, Council and Parliament.

Established in 2002, the European Union Solidarity Fund is an EU's response tool to major natural disasters affecting Members States; Portugal has activated this fund twice - 2003 and 2010.

The amendment proposed by the EU Commission, which will be analysed by the Commission for Regional Development of the European Parliament on Wednesday, December 18, is intended to improve the operation of the EUSF by streamlining its capacity of response and reducing the complexity and lack of clarity in some of the criteria concerning its activation.