DRAFT AMENDING BUDGET No 6 TO THE GENERAL BUDGET 2016 Accompanying the proposal to mobilise the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide assistance to Germany
Date: 2016-10-19
Institutions: Directorate-General for Budget, European Commission
Subjects: Bavaria, Germany, amending budget, commitment of expenditure, draft budget, emergency aid, financial year, flood, fund (EU), general budget (EU)

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 19.10.2016 COM(2016) 680 final   DRAFT AMENDING BUDGET No 6 TO THE GENERAL BUDGET 2016 Accompanying the proposal to mobilise the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide assistance to Germany  
 
 
Having regard to: 

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the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular  Article 314 
thereof,  in  conjunction  with  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Atomic  Energy 
Community, and in particular Article 106a thereof, 

Regulation  (EU,  Euratom)  No  966/2012  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of 
the Union1, and in particular Article 41 thereof, 

the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016, as adopted on 
25 November 20152, 
Amending budget No 1/20163, adopted on 14 April 2016, 
Amending budget No 2/20164, adopted on 6 July 2016, 
Draft amending budget No 3/20165, adopted on 30 June 2016, 
Draft amending budget No 4/20166, adopted on 30 September 2016, 
Draft amending budget No 5/20167, adopted on 7 October 2016. 

The European Commission hereby presents Draft amending budget No 6 to the 2016 budget 
to the European Parliament and to the Council. 

CHANGES  TO  THE  STATEMENT  OF  REVENUE  AND  EXPENDITURE  BY 
SECTION 

The  changes  to  the  statement  of  revenue  and  expenditure  by  section  are  available  on  EUR-
Lex (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/budget/www/index-en.htm). An English version of the changes 
to this statement is attached for information as a budgetary annex. 

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OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1. 
OJ L 48, 24.2.2016, p. 1. 
OJ L 143, 31.5.2016, p. 1. 
OJ L 248, 15.9.2016, p. 1. 
COM(2016) 227 final, 30.6.2016. 
COM(2016) 623, 30.9.2016. 
COM(2016) 660, 7.10.2016. 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

2.  

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 4 

MOBILISATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION SOLIDARITY FUND ........................................ 4 

2.1   GERMANY – SUMMER FLOODS .................................................................................................................. 4 

3. 

4. 

FINANCING ........................................................................................................................................... 5 

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 6 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 6 for the year 2016 covers the mobilisation of the European Union 
Solidarity  Fund  (EUSF)  for  an  amount  of  EUR 31 475 125  in  commitment  and  payment 
appropriations. The mobilisation relates to floods in Germany. 

2.  

MOBILISATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION SOLIDARITY FUND 

Late August 2016 the Commission received an application for EUSF financial assistance relating to 
natural disasters in Germany (floodings in May/June 2016). 

The Commission services have  carried out  a thorough  examination of  the application in  accordance 
with Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/20028 establishing the EUSF (hereafter "the Regulation"), in 
particular with Articles 2, 3 and 4 thereof.  

The most important elements of the assessments are summarised here below. 

2.1  

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

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Germany – Summer Floods 

During  May  and  June  2016,  the  Lower  Bavarian  administrative  district  of  Rottal-Inn  was 
affected  by  a  series  of  extremely  intense,  short-lived  cases  of  flooding/flash  floods  causing 
destruction of public and private infrastructure, private homes and in agriculture. 

The flooding is of natural origin and therefore falls within the main field of application of the 
EUSF. 

The  application  from  Germany  was  received  on  19  August  2016,  within  the  deadline  of  12 
weeks after the first damage was recorded on 28 May 2016. 

Germany did not request the payment of an advance. 

The  German  authorities  estimated  the  total  direct  damage  caused  by  the  disaster  at 
 EUR 1  259,005 million.  This  amount  represents  38%  of  the  “major  disaster”  threshold  for 
mobilising  the  EUSF  of  EUR 3 312,242 million  applicable  to  Germany  in  2016  (i.e. 
EUR 3 billion in 2011 prices). 

As total direct damage remains below the major disaster threshold for activating the Solidarity 
Fund  the  application  was  presented  and  examined  on  the  basis  of  the  criteria  for  "regional 
disasters” as laid down in Article 2(3) of the Regulation which defines a 'regional disaster' as 
any natural disaster resulting in a region at NUTS level 2 of an eligible State in direct damage 
in excess of 1,5% of that region's GDP. The German application relates to a single NUTS level 
2  region,  namely  'Niederbayern  (DE22)'.  The  reported  direct  damage  of  EUR  1  259,005 
million represents 3,03% of the region's GDP (EUR 41 522 million based on 2014 data) and 
exceeds the 1,5% threshold of article 2(3) of the Regulation. The application from Germany is 
therefore eligible for a contribution from the Solidarity Fund. 

As  regards  the  impact  and  consequences  of  the  disaster,  the  Lower  Bavarian  administrative 
district of Rottal-Inn was hit the hardest. In particular the town of 'Simbach am Inn' was almost 
entirely  destroyed  on  the  first  of  June.  An  area  of  approximately  430  km2  with  about  5  000 
homes, was flooded in the district of Rottal-Inn. At the time of application, over 2 000 people 
were  still  unable  to  return  to  their  houses  and  had  to  seek  provisional  accommodation.  The 
impact of the events in June affected the municipal area of Waldkirchen (district of Freyung-
Grafenau)  where  90  houses  were  flooded.  Parts  of  the  local  hospital  were  brought  to  a 

Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund, 
(OJ L 311 of 14.11.2002, p. 3) as amended by Regulation (EU) No 661/2014 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 15 May 2014 (OJ L 189 of 27.06.2014, p.143). 

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standstill. In total, more than 47 000 people in Lower Bavaria were affected and seven people 
lost  their  lives.  The  events  caused  significant  damage  to  businesses  and  agriculture.  In 
addition, heavy damage to the basic infrastructure was reported: traffic routes such as railway 
lines, local and national roads were rendered impassable, leading to serious traffic problems. 
Water  supply  and  sewage  services  were  cut  off  and  there  was  damage  to  the  electricity 
network.  In  the  town  of  'Simbach  am  Inn'  there  was  no  municipal  water  supply  for  three 
weeks. Besides the efforts of numerous relief organisations, a total of over 12 000 personnel 
were deployed, including approximately 5 700 members of the fire brigade and 1 000 Bavarian 
police officers. 

(8) 

(9) 

The  cost  of  essential  emergency  operations  eligible  under  Article  3(2)  of  the  Regulation  has 
been estimated by the German authorities at EUR 94,196 million and has been broken down 
by type of operation. The largest share of the cost of emergency operations (over EUR 52,227 
million) concerns recovery operations in the field of transport. The second largest share of cost 
concerns the cleaning-up measures amounting to EUR 21,083 million. 

The  affected  region  is  a  "more  developed  region"  under  the  European  Structural  and 
Investment  (ESI)  Funds  (2014-2020).  The  German  authorities  have  not  signalled  to  the 
Commission  their  intention  to  reallocate  funding  from  the  ESI  Fund  programme  towards 
recovery measures. 

(10)  As  regards  the  implementation  of  Union  legislation  on  disaster  risk  prevention  and 
management  there  is  currently  no  infringement  procedure  on-going.  Moreover,  the  German 
application gives a detailed overview of prevention measures in place. For instance, in 2014, 
the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Building and Transport worked out a special investment 
programme  for  flood  defence  with  all  stakeholders,  which  runs  for  four  years  (2015-2018) 
with a total investment of EUR 25 million. Regarding local flood alert and mobilisation plans, 
the  ministry  provided  the  civil  protection  authorities  and  municipalities  with  guidelines  on 
drawing  up  or  extending  their  flood  alert  and  mobilisation  plans  followed  by  numerous 
information and training sessions. 

(11)  At the date of submitting the application Germany was not subject to infringement proceedings 

concerning Union legislation relating to the nature of the disaster. 

(12)  The German authorities confirmed that there is no insurance coverage of eligible costs, except 

those already identified by them amounting to EUR 0,131 million. 

3. 

FINANCING 

As solidarity was the central justification for the creation of the Fund, the Commission takes the view 
that  aid  from  the  Fund  should  be  progressive.  That  means  that,  according  to  previous  practice,  the 
portion of the damage exceeding the “major disaster” threshold for mobilising the Fund (i.e. 0,6% of 
GNI or EUR 3 billion in 2011 prices, whichever is the lower amount) should give rise to higher aid 
intensity than damage up to the threshold. The rate applied in the past for defining the allocations for 
major disasters is 2,5% of total direct damage under the threshold and 6% for the part of the damage 
above.  For  regional disasters and disasters accepted under the “neighbouring country” provision the 
rate  is  2,5%.  This  rate  was  applied  as  the  disaster  did  not  exceed  the  major  disaster  threshold 
applicable to Germany in 2016. 

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The Commission therefore proposes to apply the same percentages and to mobilise the following aid 
amount: 

Disaster 

Direct 
damage 

(million 
EUR) 

Total cost 
of eligible 
operations 
(million 
EUR) 

Applied 
regional 
disaster 
threshold 
[1,5% of GDP] 
(million EUR) 

2,5% of direct 
damage 
(EUR) 

6% of direct 
damage 
above 
threshold 

Total amount of 
aid proposed 

(EUR) 

GERMANY 

1 259,005 

94,196 

622,8 

31 475 125   

~ 

TOTAL 

31 475 125 

31 475 125 

This  is  the  second  proposal  for  a  mobilisation  decision  of  the  European  Union  Solidarity  Fund  in 
2016. The total amount of aid proposed above complies with the ceiling provisions of the Multiannual 
Financial Framework (MFF) regulation9 of EUR 552 040 402 (i.e. EUR 500 000 000 in 2011 prices). 

In addition, in accordance with Article 10(1) of the Council Regulation on the multiannual financial 
framework10, as the 2015 allocation of EUR 541 216 080 remained unspent, it is carried over for one 
year to 2016. Therefore, the total remaining amount for mobilisations of the EUSF at the beginning of 
2016  was  EUR 1 093 256 482.  The  remaining  unspent  amount  is  currently  EUR  1  091  604  648, 
following  the  first  2016  mobilisation  proposal  (EUR 1 651 834,  earthquake  in  the  Ionian  Islands, 
Greece). 

4. 

CONCLUSION  

The Commission proposes to mobilise the European Union Solidarity Fund for the case of Germany 
presented  above  and  to  amend  the  budget  2016  by  increasing  budget  article  13 06 01  'Assistance  to 
Member  States  in  the  event  of  a  major  natural  disaster  with  serious  repercussions  on  living 
conditions, the natural environment or the economy' by EUR 31 475 125 both in commitment and in 
payment appropriations. 

As the European Union Solidarity Fund is a special instrument as defined in the MFF regulation, the 
corresponding appropriations should be budgeted outside the corresponding MFF ceilings. 

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OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 884. 
Council  Regulation  (EU,  Euratom)  No  1311/2013  of  2  December  2013  laying  down  the  multiannual  financial 
framework for the years 2014-2020, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 884. 

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