Daily News 17 / 09 / 2026

Commission proposes €489 million to help Portugal, Spain, Italy and Malta recover from severe storms

Today, the European Commission proposed to mobilise €489 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to help Portugal, Spain, Italy and Malta recover from severe storms and flooding in January and February 2026. The funding will support essential emergency and recovery operations to rebuild transport infrastructure and reestablish essential services.

The Commission proposes to pay €261 million to Portugal, €149 million to Spain, €74.8 million to Italy and €3.72 million to Malta.

The proposal follows applications submitted by the four Member States after storm Harry struck Malta and Italy in January 2026, and after a series of storms caused severe flooding in Portugal and Spain between January and February 2026.

The Commission's proposal has to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. After taking the advance payments into account, €385.6 million would remain to be paid to the four affected Member States. Once the proposal is approved by the co-legislators, the Commission will adopt the implementing decision for the payment of the remaining balance.

More information is available in the press release online.

(For more information: Maciej Berestecki - Tel: +32 229-66483; Anna Wartberger – Tel.: +32 2 298 20 54)

EU invests €126 million in cross-border renewable energy projects

The European Commission is allocating nearly €126 million in grants from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to help finance three cross-border renewable energy projects (C-RES).