500 million euros in aid for Austria’s flood victims – quickly and directly from Brussels. That was the positive message that the federal government had to announce – at the height of the election campaign.
The EU Commission has released funds that Austria would otherwise not have been able to access so quickly, explained the Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP).
But is that really the case? This has been causing a heated political debate in Vienna and also in Brussels for days. The funds that had allegedly been raised for the flood disaster in Austria (but also in the Czech Republic and Poland) suddenly turned out to be funds that Austria would have been entitled to anyway – as part of the EU funding for regional development.
Not only was the money not new, but simply embellished with a different decoration, it also had to overcome a number of bureaucratic hurdles. “Fast”, as the head of the commission puts it Ursula von der Leyen had promised, no speech.
The EU Commission has now responded to the anger in Austria. A statement emphasizes that at least 30 percent of the money earmarked for flood relief could be paid out immediately as a quasi-advance payment. It is also guaranteed that the measures that are supported “do not require any additional payments from the individual states”.
SPÖ asks the EU Commission
Whether Austria’s demand to actually receive the promised 500 million euros is currently being checked in Vienna, as well as in Prague and Warsaw.
The SPÖ delegation in the EU Parliament wants to know exactly. She has sent an urgent request – the EU Parliament’s sharpest weapon – to the EU Commission. It asks again which funds should actually be released.
