Thessaly floods

14.9.2023

Priority question for written answer  P-002662/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Kostas Papadakis (NI), Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (NI)

The flooding in Thessaly has left 15 people dead so far.

Villages in Karditsa and Trikala are submerged in muddy water and districts in the city of Larissa and surrounding villages have flooded. Volos is mired in mud and there is no drinking water.

In view of this:

• 1.What does the Commission say to the requests for full compensation for the damage suffered by the victims of the Thessaly floods, using funds from the Solidarity Fund, as well as to an immediate lifting of unfavourable terms and conditions which exclude people who qualify for compensation and which consider private compensation to be a non-qualifying criterion?
• 2.What does it say to the requests for: the Recovery Fund and the NSRF to be used to provide relief to flood victims rather than for corporate profit; generous aid to be swiftly granted; speedier actions to repair all damage caused to houses, stores, crops, livestock, agricultural and livestock facilities and machinery; additional hospital staffing and equipment; emergency public health measures; and for much-needed flood prevention works to be planned and carried out?
• 3.What does it have to say about the fact that the New Democracy government and parties formerly in power, as well as regional and municipal authorities, bear serious criminal responsibility for their failure to carry out necessary flood prevention works, while at the same time applying the guidelines in Directive 2007/60/EC – which stipulates that Member States must implement plans ‘not entailing excessive costs in the field of flood risk management’ setting apart ‘areas... [that] could be considered not to be significant, for example in thinly populated or unpopulated areas or in areas with limited economic assets’ – with fatal consequences, namely loss of human life and property and destruction of the environment?

Submitted: 14.9.2023