MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on mitigating the consequences of earthquakes in Croatia

B9‑0059/2021

European Parliament resolution on mitigating the consequences of earthquakes in Croatia

(2021/2504(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union,

– having regard to Article 174, Article 175, third paragraph, and Article 212 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund[1], amended by Regulation (EU) No 661/2014[2] and Regulation (EU) 2020/461[3],

– having regard to Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism[4], amended by Regulation (EU) 2018/1475[5] and Decision (EU) 2019/420[6],

– having regard to the amended proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 January 2020 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum and Migration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Border Management and Visa Instrument (COM/2020/0023),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006[7], amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/1839[8], Regulation (EU) 2016/2135[9], Regulation (EU) 2017/825[10], Regulation (EU) 2017/1199[11], Regulation (EU) 2017/2305[12], Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046[13], Regulation (EU) 2018/1719[14], Regulation (EU) 2019/711[15], Regulation (EU) 2020/460[16], Regulation (EU) 2020/558[17], Regulation (EU) 2020/1041[18] and Regulation (EU) 2020/1542[19],

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2016/369 of 15 March 2016 on the provision of emergency support within the Union[20], amended by Council Regulation (EU) 2020/521[21],

– having regard to the Commission communication of 14 October 2020 entitled ‘A Renovation Wave for Europe - greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives’ (COM(2020)0662),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) No 375/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 establishing the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (‘EU Aid Volunteers initiative’)[22], corrected by Corrigendum to Regulation of 24 April 2014,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996 concerning humanitarian aid[23], amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003[24], Regulation (EC) 219/2009[25] and Regulation (EU) 2019/1243[26],

– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, and in particular point 11 thereof[27],

– having regard to the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2020 on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide assistance to Croatia and Poland in relation to a natural disaster and to provide for the payment of advances to Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in relation to a public health emergency (COM(2020)0960),

– having regard to the Council decision of 30 October 2020 adopting the Council’s position on draft amending budget No 9 of the European Union for the financial year 2020[28],

– having regard to its resolution of 24 November 2020 on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 9/2020 of the European Union for the financial year 2020 accompanying the proposal to mobilise the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide assistance to Croatia and Poland in relation to a natural disaster and to provide for the payment of advances to Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in relation to a public health emergency[29],

– having regard to the Council conclusions of 28 November 2008 calling for civil protection capabilities to be enhanced by a European mutual assistance system building on the civil protection modular approach,

– having regard to its resolution of 14 November 2007 on the regional impact of earthquakes[30],

– having regard to its resolution of 19 June 2008 on stepping up the Union’s disaster response capacity[31],

– having regard to the Paris Agreement, signed on 12 December 2015,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 on the European Green Deal (COM(2019)0640),

– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas major devastating earthquakes have struck Croatia over the past year, with one hitting the counties of Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje on 22 March 2020 with a magnitude of 5.5, another two hitting Sisak-Moslavina county on 28 and 29 December 2020 with a magnitude of 5.2 and 6.4 respectively, and a final earthquake hitting the same county on 6 January 2021 with a magnitude of 5.0; whereas the severity of these earthquakes meant that they caused damage far away from their epicentres;

B. whereas the earthquake in March 2020 resulted in one fatality and injured 26 people, and caused huge socio-economic and material damage in the city of Zagreb and beyond; whereas the most recent earthquakes in central Croatia in December 2020 and January 2021 caused seven fatalities and injured 26 people, and led to severe material damage in the nearby towns and villages, leaving many people homeless; whereas these earthquakes caused further stress and long-lasting psychological effects in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic;

C. whereas the region, towns and villages struck by the latest earthquakes require urgent and quick reconstruction; whereas the earthquakes brought a large number of inhabitants of the affected areas to the brink of despair;

D. whereas the fact that a significant number of houses built after the 1990s war collapsed during the recent earthquakes revealed the irregularities and corruption of the post-war reconstruction campaign; whereas sustainable reconstruction efforts need to be properly coordinated and monitored in order to remedy the economic and social losses, while ensuring transparency, following best practices and complying with public procurement rules;

E. whereas the areas affected by the most recent earthquakes are mostly rural and less developed, are already extremely socially disadvantaged and poor, and are often neglected by the national authorities in their economic development strategy and programmes;

F. whereas the local and regional economy in the affected areas relies heavily on agricultural production; whereas local agricultural facilities such as buildings, machinery, equipment and fields have been severely damaged; whereas a significant number of animals, including farm animals and pets, suffered the consequences of the earthquakes;

G. whereas the earthquakes significantly hindered the functioning of public services and institutions in the affected areas, including schools and hospitals;

H. whereas the European Parliament approved EUR 683.7 million in aid from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) in November 2020 to help Croatia to deal with the aftermath of the Zagreb earthquake in March 2020; whereas various other EU instruments, such as the structural funds and the civil protection instruments, may be used to strengthen earthquake prevention measures and rehabilitation measures;

1. Expresses its solidarity and empathy with all the individuals affected by the earthquakes and their families;

2. Welcomes the efforts made by the rescue units, civil protection forces, volunteers, civil society organisations, international organisations, and all other relevant actors in the devastated areas to save lives, contain the damage and guarantee basic activities to maintain a decent standard of living; welcomes all the initiatives that resulted in support and help for those in need;

3. Expresses its deep concern that extreme weather events and natural disasters will only increase in number and intensify due to climate change;

4. Commends the solidarity of the Member States and other countries that are providing support in the form of mutual assistance during this emergency situation;

5. Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the Croatian authorities, to devise a swift way to distribute the necessary financial aid and provide other assistance to ensure the swift recovery of the affected areas and to provide assistance to all those in need;

6. Calls on the Commission to make instruments within the cohesion and regional funds available for reconstruction activities; stresses the importance of creating synergies between all available EU instruments, in order to ensure that resources are used effectively for reconstruction work and all other necessary activities;

7. Calls on the Croatian authorities to swiftly and thoroughly assess the overall damage in all earthquake-affected areas in order to begin renovation and reconstruction work as soon as possible;

8. Stresses that the reconstruction process must take into account past experiences, and should be carried out with the utmost rapidity and transparency and include expert monitoring; stresses the need to guarantee the safety, stability and future prospects of those affected in order to ensure that they can continue to live in the region and that the area is not further disadvantaged by the detrimental impacts of population decline;

9. Calls on Croatia’s national, regional and local authorities to push for reconstruction activities to be compliant with requirements for earthquake-resistant buildings and infrastructure and adhere to best professional practices and expertise from other Member States;

10. Stresses how the recent earthquakes revealed that post-war reconstruction and rebuilding in the 1990s was not always compliant with the relevant building standards; therefore calls on the Croatian national authorities to carry out an inquiry into the post-war reconstruction campaign in order to investigate all the irregularities in the process and their links with corruption, which resulted in poor quality housing that was damaged in the recent earthquakes;

11. Stresses that a large part of the European Union is at risk from earthquakes; therefore urges the Commission to focus on implementing, at the EU level, prevention, education, research, risk management, protection and solidarity measures, as well as measures to address and repair earthquake damage;

12. Welcomes the support from the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund for disaster risk prevention, resilience, energy and seismic retrofitting in the current financial period; encourages the Croatian authorities to include these measures in their planning and programming for the 2021-2027 EU budget allocations accordingly and to call for a mobilisation of the EUSF; also calls on the Commission to demonstrate flexibility with regard to programming and the amending of national operational programmes when it comes to dealing with natural disasters;

13. Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the EU and Croatian institutions, to distribute the necessary financial aid and provide other assistance to ensure the swift recovery of the affected areas; calls on the Commission to take into consideration, when approving financial aid, the fact that Croatia is also fighting a pandemic, and encourages it to further simplify the approval process in order to allow for effective and swift assistance to respond to the immediate needs of the population;

14. Stresses the importance of prioritising residents of the affected areas for COVID-19 vaccination; encourages the Croatian Government to redirect a significant portion of its vaccine supply to Sisak-Moslavina county in order to immediately protect the health of all residents, helpers and workers on the ground;

15. Notes that earthquakes have very serious short- and long-term effects on regional economies and adverse impacts on infrastructure, employment, natural and cultural heritage, the environment and tourism, leading to an overall negative impact on economic and social cohesion;

16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen research with a view to putting in place a system that ensures better preparedness in order to prevent and manage similar crises and minimise the impact of similar disasters; calls for enhanced early warning systems in the Member States and the creation and strengthening of links between the various early warning systems;

17. Stresses the importance of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism in fostering cooperation among national civil protection authorities across Europe in adverse situations and in minimising the effects of exceptional events;

18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Government of Croatia, and the regional and local authorities of the affected areas.