Brussels to grant aid to Portugal for fire damage

BRUSSELS (AFP) Aug 22, 2003
The European Commission is set to agree to grant Portugal aid from its disaster relief fund next week to cope with damage from forest fires, a spokesman for the EU executive said.

"We will be taking a decision hopefully to provide some sort of assistance to Portugal under the solidarity fund for the forest fires that happened earlier this summer," spokesman Michael Mann said.

The commisssion will meet Wednesday for the first time after its summer break. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin will also formally request aid from the fund when he meets with the commission after its weekly gathering.

Portugal, where some 215,000 hectares of land have been burnt by blazes since the start of the year, has been the EU country the hardest hit by summer forest fires, which have caused nearly one billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) in damage, according to government estimates.

The European solidarity fund for catastrophes was launched after the devastating floods in central Europe and the south of France in 2002. Its budget still has nearly 950 million euros available for 2003.

TERRA.WIRE