EU has given nothing to UK flood victims since 2016 from its Disaster Fund

17 EU payouts in last 3 years for other countries, part-paid for by UK taxpayers

Where was the flood of ‘EU Solidarity’ for British citizens in recent years?

SPECIAL REPORT : The EU has a natural disasters fund for EU member countries experiencing extreme events, mainly floods. Payouts have totalled €5.2 billion. According to the EU's own latest information, since 2016 the UK has been allocated nothing.

The European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) was created after the floods in Central Europe in the summer of 2002. So far 24 different European countries have been supported.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The "European Union Solidarity Fund"

Since 2002 the EU has agreed to pay out for floods and severe weather related events 77 times
In 17 years, only two of these 77 payouts went to the UK
In the last 10 years the UK has received just 1.5% of the money paid out
That’s the same percentage as Serbia has received, and Serbia isn’t even an EU member state
Meanwhile, for the last 18 years the UK taxpayer has been funding 12.5% of this

For the UK from 2016, NO payouts have been approved by the EU for UK floods
In the same period the EU agreed 17 payouts totalling €1.7 billion to other EU countries

This fund is called the “EU Solidarity Fund”
The UK was a member of the EU until 01 Feb this year, 2020

British people in flooded areas may feel entitled to ask the EU:
“Where has your solidarity been?”

(Data taken from official EU Commission records, last updated end-Nov 2019.)

EU Directives have hampered dredging and traditional water management

For generations, British farmers and landowners as well as waterways authorities, have dredged rivers, culverts, streams and ponds, as part of the regular maintenance of the countryside.

Then in 2000 a raft of EU Directives started appearing – particularly the Water Framework Directive and its sub-directives, as well as the Waste Framework and Habitat Directives – which began to interfere in the normal dredging traditions. There are so many EU Directives which now affect water management and dredging that we will not list them all.

Suffice it to say that whilst the EU has not yet banned dredging completely, it has made it much more difficult and much more expensive.

Observations

Flooding for the non-metropolitan, non-Brussels, non-elites

Across the UK for many years now, issues like flooding have assumed rather more importance for rural and semi-rural people than for most metropolitan bubble-dwellers.

More effective dredging is not the answer to preventing all flooding problems, but the EU’s interference in this area has hardly helped. In 10 months’ time the UK will no longer be subject to these EU Directives and it is to be hoped that the Environment Agency is already working on their replacement by a simpler and more reasonable system of supervision.

Issues like these are always more complex than they first appear, and naturally Remoaners will continue to pretend that the EU is not at fault in any way. On topics like this they deflect by saying “The EU does not prevent dredging, so this is fake news.”

It is true that the EU’s Directives do not prevent the dredging of rivers, streams and ponds completely. No-one is saying that. What we are saying is that this is an example of an area which has been grossly over-regulated by the EU. It is now hugely bureaucratic, restricted, time-consuming, and expensive.

It has caused great problems for farmers and land managers and the banishment of these EU Directives at the end of the year will be welcomed in many parts of the United Kingdom.

Then all we have to do is tackle the bureaucratic Environment Agency, but let’s win one battle at a time....

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[ Sources: EU Commission | EU Parliament | Environment Agency | European Dredging Association (EuDA) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 03 Mar 2020

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Reader Comments 21

1. Annoyed , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 07:34:

I would not expect anything else from the EU. The name of the game was to destroy Britain as witnessed by the 'fear' they now express of a more succesful Britain outside of the communist bloc.

2. sam / somerset , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 08:30:

Another brilliant article. I've already seen some folk on social media saying 'yeah we knew this' but in all honesty they suspected but they didn't really because they didn't know the facts. We need you to keep giving out facts like these. Thanks for what you do.

3. Jon, Wales , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 08:45:

As ever, an excellent easy to understand article in simplistic terms from Brexit Facts4EU.org which I'm certain elected MPs will understand?
This article should concern everyone affected by flooding in the UK. It should also concern those unaffected, because at the end of the day we all end up paying for the clean up and preventative measures in one way or another, and these don't come on the cheap?
We should in my opinion consider recent flooding was much more than expected, and that natural weather patterns are often difficult to plan for, especially where several slow or fast moving intense storms follow one another as we've seen - and there is more on the way (among other things, my late father was a meteorologist)!
The "European Union Solidarity Fund" indicates the type of 'level playing field' the EU has demanded for many years - what they really mean is, it's only 'level' from an EU point of view whilst they bleed our country for every penny they can get to fund THEIR project?
I suggest the long standing floods are a national emergency, which has been made a whole lot worse given the global health issue?
It is time Prime Minister Johnson takes a good look at this brief and factual article, and withholds British taxpayers £billions from EU coffers - let them complain as much as they like. It's UK money (not EU money), and we need it at home to address the many domestic issues, which is not an unreasonable ask, given our NET contributor status?

4. Sydney Ashurst , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 09:10:

Oh those Commission Diktats.
How many people know that Boris's Thames Estuary Airport was a non-starter because of the EU Birds Habitat Directive.

5. Alan Timmins , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 11:29:

One of the main culprits of Flooding is that because of the EU Water Directive, the silt and debris which was previously removed from water courses and used to shore up the banks of rivers etc is now classed as 'Hazardous Waste' which prevents it from being re-used in Flood Defences. As 'Hazardous Waste' it now has to be removed and disposed of under very strict conditions, which no small Landowner can possibly afford....therefore they just leave it where it is and 'keep schtum'. As is often the case, with many of the EU Dictats, what seems like a good idea on paper simply fails to translate into good practice in the real world....think Butter Mountains, Wine Lakes and hundreds of Millions of Euros spent planting Olive Groves in parts of Italy where Olive Trees will simply not grow....but the EU Bureaucrats won't admit that they got things wrong........just as they have with the EU Water Directive. The fact that the UK has not received anything like our fair and reasonable share of the Funds set aside for Flooding disasters is yet another reason that we are right to be leaving the stinking, sinking EU Ship.

6. Rodney Marlow , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 11:46:

You do realise that we needed to put a claim in to receive the money? Who's fault is it if our inept government can't be arsed?

7. Mike Davison , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 15:06:

This is baloney - the Conservative government failed to ask for help which WAS available. More Leave lies.

8. Mrs M Roberts , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 15:11:

Is the above comment a fact or an assumption?

9. Karen L , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 17:41:

The government could have applied for EU flood relief in 2016 but the Cameron Gov chose not to apply.
Also the U.K. has received the fourth largest payout of over 222million euros for floods in 2007 and 2015 so it has benefitted from the fund since its conception in 2002 It is up to the government to declare whether floods are deemed to be an emergency or not ( which means they have to pay compensation) and also whether to apply. They could have applied for around 50 million for the floods in 2016 in Yorkshire but did not. This is not the fault of the EU.

10. Gerry , Tuesday, March 03, 2020, 19:15:

I've checked Karen, and every single fact in this article is correct.

21 comments, page 1 of 3

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