Translation of "Cours pour les gestionnaires du lieu d'une catastrophe " (French → English) :

9. Deeply regrets the fact that so many and such heavy losses have occurred during recent natural disasters in certain Member States and considers it necessary, in consequence, to examine immediately the adequacy of prevention and preparedness measures in order to ensure that the necessary lessons are drawn with a view to preventing and limiting the devastating effects of similar disasters in Member States in the future; in this regard, urges the Commission to ask Member States to supply details of their operational programmes in place for dealing with natural disasters, with a view to exchanging experience and drawing conclusions on im ...[+++]mediate measures, coordination of administrative and operational bodies, and availability of the necessary human and material resources;

– Mr President, I have to say that in my own Group’s voting list this resolution on natural disasters is described as forest fires, but the natural disasters in Europe over the summer were actually wider than that and I wish to raise the issue in my own region of the worst floods in over a century.

– Mr President, I have to say that in my own Group’s voting list this resolution on natural disasters is described as forest fires, but the natural disasters in Europe over the summer were actually wider than that and I wish to raise the issue in my own region of the worst floods in over a century.

The grant is proposed to be used primarily for reimbursing the cost of the emergency clean up measures following the disaster caused by the sinking of the "Prestige", which is affecting the coastal areas of the four northern autonomous regions of Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country) including some islands off the Atlantic coast and the estuaries of the Spanish rivers leading into the Atlantic sea.

4. Regrets that the Court found several instances where one and the same person was able to approve the commitments and payments, using the electronic approval system, thus discharging the duties of the manager, the authorising officer, the financial controller and the accounting officer; notes that the Court of Auditors deplores the practice of "super user" rights as incompatible with the principle of the separation of duties; welcomes the assurance by the Foundation that this practice is no longer in use;

1. At the request of a Member State or of a country involved in accession negotiations with the Union, hereinafter referred to as ‘eligible State’, assistance from the Fund may be mobilised when serious repercussions on living conditions, the natural environment or the economy occur in one or more regions of that eligible State as a consequence of a major or regional natural disaster having taken place on the territory of the same eligible State or of a neighbouring eligible State.