Comite of the Regions rapporteur: "Balkan floods show urgency to make regions more resilient to disasters"

Met dank overgenomen van Comité van de Regio's (CvdR) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 21 mei 2014.

​The Balkans has been hit by severe flooding with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia experiencing the worst levels in 120 years. Bulgaria and Romania have also been affected by minor floods with surges expected between 22 and 23 May.

Cllr. Harvey Siggs (ECR Group/UK), the Committee of the Regions' (CoR) rapporteur on the Post-2015 Hyogo Framework for Action: Managing risks to achieve resilience , expressed his deepest condolences and underlined the urgent need to increase resilience to disasters. "I would like to express my deepest condolences. The event is nothing short of a tragedy. It shows the urgent need to make our communities and our regions more resilient to disasters. It also shows that we must work together in building resilience. Floods know no borders. The more resilient we are the better we will be able to contain and limit the damages caused", said Cllr. Siggs.

The floods have led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and raised fears in Bosnia and Herzegovina that the location of some 120,000 landmines laid during the war in the 1990s could now shift. In Serbia the country's largest power plant located in Obrenovac also risks being flooded. The power plant supplies electricity to half of Serbia and most of its capital, Belgrade.

Cllr. Siggs noted that, "These are not the first, nor the last floods that will occur in Europe. My own county of Somerset was badly affected by floods earlier this year, although mercifully without the tragic loss of life that we have witnessed this month. We must learn lessons from the past and share experience on how to manage these events in the future, for which we must plan and prepare today at all levels of governance".

He added, “For those affected directly and indirectly, we must show solidarity and offer assistance. We urgent everyone to please respond to the appeals launched by the Bosnian and Serbian associations of local government"

For more information about the appeals:

Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Serbia ( secretariat@skgo.org)

Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( vesna@sogfbih.ba)