Slovenia applies for disaster relief funds

Slovenia submitted on Friday an application for the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) in a bid to have reconstructions of infrastructures damaged in a month-long ice storms and flooding earlier this year. In its application forwarded to the European Commission, the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Development and Technology said that cost of the natural disasters, which went on from Jan. 20 to Feb. 27, amounted to 428.7 million euros (587.3 million U.S. dollars). In addition, national economy also sustained losses of about 40.7 million euros. This is the fourth time when Slovenia applies for disaster relief funds from the European Union since autumn flooding in 2007. The EUSF, founded in 2002, is to provide assistance to EU member states when direct cost of catastrophe damage exceeds three billion euros, or 0.6 percent of gross national income (GNI) of the country concerned. The Slovenian government put the latest disaster damage at 1.5 percent of its GNI. Its request for disaster relief aid needs approval by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Council before the decision is made by early 2015.