EU funds for the December 2015 floods in Yorkshire
26.4.2017
Question for written answer E-002903-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Richard Corbett (S&D)
Has the Commission transferred to the UK Government any monies, from the Solidarity Fund or from other lines in the EU budget, related to the catastrophic floods that affected parts of Yorkshire in December 2015?
Is the Commission aware of the statement[1] made to the House of Commons by the UK Government which indicates clearly that the government intends:
- —To keep in its own pocket a proportion of the EU funding in order to offset any consequential diminution of the UK abatement;
- —To keep a proportion of the funds to offset its losses from having to reimburse to the EU money secured in the wake of the previous 2007 floods that was judged to have been spent outside EU rules;
- —To siphon off a further proportion of the EU funding to cover what it calls ‘the costs of bidding to the fund’?
Does the Commission agree that such deductions, which would all lessen the amount actually reaching the intended beneficiaries, would amount to the UK Treasury profiting from the misfortune of others? Are such deductions allowable under the rules?
- [1] Written statement — HCWS412, https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-01-16/HCWS412/