Members of a European Parliament committee approved on Tuesday aid of €9.21 million to Cyprus from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to deal with the consequences of the 2025 forest fires.
Specifically, according to an announcement by the European Parliament, the members of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) approved the mobilization of a total amount of €144.1 million from the EU Solidarity Fund to support Cyprus, Romania and Spain following severe natural disasters that occurred in 2025.
More specifically, the members of BUDG approved the allocation of €9.21 million to Cyprus for the forest fires of 2025, €14.34 million in Romania for the floods and €120.55 million to Spain for the fires that hit the country.
According to the European Parliament, the proposal was approved by the Committee on Budgets with 31 votes in favour, with no votes against or abstentions.
The announcement reminds that Cyprus has already received an advance payment of €2.3 million to cover immediate recovery needs after the fires, while Spain had received an advance payment of €30 million. The final amounts were calculated by the Commission, based on the size of the losses declared by the states concerned, in accordance with the Fund's operating rules and available resources.
As noted, the two large forest fires that broke out in Cyprus in July 2025, affected the districts of Limassol and Paphos, causing the displacement of residents, the death of two people and the destruction of almost 900 private properties. At the same time, education and health services in the affected areas were affected.
In the case of Romania, the funding relates to the severe floods of May and June 2025, which caused extensive damage in several parts of the country, including the Priid salt mine. For Spain, the aid is linked to the widespread forest fires that broke out during 2025, in conditions of prolonged drought and extreme heatwaves, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their areas and causing the death of eight people.
In their draft report, MEPs highlight the increasing incidence of major natural disasters in Europe and call on member states and the European Commission to step up investment in adaptation and prevention measures to limit human and economic losses.
According to the European Parliament, the mobilisation of the Solidarity Fund should be approved by both the Plenary of this House and the Council of the EU. The vote in the Plenary is expected to take place in July and after final approval the financial support will be paid to the States concerned in a lump sum.
The European Parliament recalls that since its creation in 2002, the EU Solidarity Fund has allocated more than €10 billion to deal with 147 catastrophic events in Member States and candidate countries.
