The European Investment Bank (EIB) will mobilize up to 900 million euros for the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by floods in Valencia, Spain, the institution announced this Wednesday.
“We discussed an urgent financial support package for Spain that we have prepared together with the Spanish Government to facilitate redeployment and accelerate the disbursement of up to 900 million euros for the reconstruction of critical infrastructure,” said EIB President Nadia Calviño in speech to the European Parliament’s Budget Committee, cited by the EFE news agency.
Calviño, who was Spain’s Economy Minister until December 2023, argued that the EIB should consolidate itself as “the climate bank”, which allocates “more than half of its investments in the European Union (EU) to support the green transition” , investing in energy infrastructure, sustainable transport and the decarbonization of industry.
“The recent floods in Spain and a few months ago in central and eastern Europe confirm the need to invest more in adaptation and resistance”, said the president of the EIB.
For Nadia Calviño, “this option is not only correct, but also smarter”, “because every euro invested in resilience and adaptation saves between five and seven euros in repairing damage”.
The Government of Spain declared the Valencia region a “catastrophe zone” on Tuesday and approved a first package of 10,600 million euros in aid for populations and companies affected by the floods.
Spain has also started procedures to activate the EU solidarity fund and has asked for urgent approval in the European Parliament of an amendment to the cohesion fund regulations, in order to be able to reprogram them and allocate them to the area affected by the floods, as they are a natural disaster.
At a press conference in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emphasized on Tuesday that in addition to the immediate response to the emergency on the ground, funds will be needed to rebuild homes, shops, businesses, streets and infrastructure, as well as works that adapt territories to climate change in a region, the Mediterranean, especially affected by new extreme meteorological phenomena.
“Climate change kills, as we are seeing, unfortunately,” he stated.
Authorities have so far confirmed 217 deaths in the floods on October 29 in eastern Spain. 89 are also officially confirmed missing.
The storm and floods also caused damage to homes and businesses, as well as to transport and energy supply, telecommunications and water infrastructure, among others.
In the province of Valencia alone, authorities said today that it was necessary to rebuild 26 bridges that were damaged by bad weather.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
