Cameron to seek help from EU fund for flood relief

Anna Sonny, 14 February 2014

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed that money will not be an object in attempting to deal with the disastrous flooding that has left most of south-western England under water. But could EU politics be a potential stumbling block?

There has been much infighting, finger pointing, and even name calling by some MPs, in the blame game over who is responsible for the floods. A mixture of climate change, building on floodplains, cuts in funds for basic maintenance like dredging rivers and the failure of the government to minimise the risk all seem to have contributed to the problem. The EU itself has also been blamed; thousands of miles of ditches must be dug by local drainage boards in order to keep the Somerset Levels dry but EU waste rules and bureaucracy make it difficult for the Environmental Agency to dispose of the silt.

News came this week that Cameron may be taking steps to request a grant from the EU Solidarity Fund, which was set up in 2002 to provide aid to member states hit by natural disasters.The fund has released £2.9 billion in funding to 23 countries since its establishment, including Germany, the economic powerhouse of the EU, when it suffered flooding in 2002. The Labour government also received £130 million from the fund in 2007 when similar floods hit the UK. Countries have 10 weeks to request the aid from the first damage caused by a natural disaster.

So what caused the delay? Apparently a proportion of any claim will be deducted from next year’s rebate. But the EU has been a tricky subject for the Tories for some time now. It has created fault lines in the party between hardened eurosceptics and those who see benefits in Britain’s membership of the EU. With the upcoming referendum, perhaps Cameron doesn’t want to be seen seeking help from a body that some of his party members do not wish to be a part of, as if receiving a grant may in some way justify our membership to it.

Perhaps he should take Nigel Farage’s perspective on the issue – the Ukip leader pointed out that it’s ‘our money anyway’, seeing as Britain is a net contributor to the EU’s budget.  But he should also take heed of Farage’s advice on applying for the grant: ‘All I have said…is that if an application is to be made, I don’t think it should be made by me.’