23:02 10 June 2021
20 EU countries will get billions from the Solidarity Fund. But not Poland
As much as €500 million will be allocated to 20 European Union countries under the Solidarity Fund. This tool has nothing to do with the Reconstruction Fund, created after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The facility was launched for the first time in 2002 with the aim of helping countries hit by natural disasters. The fund will cover €132 million in damages suffered by Greece as a result of the 2020 floods in the Sterea Ellada region as well as the earthquake and cyclone that hit the country. France will receive funds to help eliminate the effects of the storm that hit the Cote d'Azur.
But also countries that have suffered as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic – including Germans, Romanians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Portuguese, and Hungarians.
Why will the funds not go to Poland? Because we did not meet the program criterion. During the session of the European Union Affairs Committee in the Polish Parliament, this issue was explained by Maciej Wąsik, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
"In the case of Poland, the Commission services concluded that the total direct public expenditure reported by the Polish authorities in the EUSF application submitted on 22 June 2020 and supplemented at the request of the Commission was not eligible for support," he stated.
