New data on the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) is now available on the European Commission’s Open Data Platform. The platform displays the achievements of the EUSF in responding to natural disasters in Member States and accession countries from the past 20 years.
- 10 May 2023
It gives citizens, particularly researchers and journalists, access to information about the performance of the EUSF, such as:
- the number of applications received
- the amount of assistance paid
- the most common types of natural disasters affecting Europe
Moreover, readers can find examples of previous natural disasters for which EUSF assistance was used in the recovery and repair of damaged infrastructure.
The Commission supports scientific research and believes in transparency. Therefore, the data is presented in informative graphs and the dataset is available to download for further research.
Background
The European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) supports EU Member States and accession countries by offering financial support after severe natural disasters and, since 2020, major health emergencies. Since its creation in 2002, the Fund has been activated in 107 catastrophic events, covering floods, forest fires, earthquakes, storms, and droughts.
So far, the EUSF has mobilised over €8.2 billion in 24 Member States (plus the UK) and 3 accession countries. As part of the exceptional EU response to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, the scope of the EUSF has been extended to cover major public health emergencies.