The European Union Solidarity Fund’s response to the 2009 Abruzzi earthquake: The relevance and cost of operations

INVITATION – PRESS BRIEFING 

Luxembourg, 18-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — In early April 2009, an earthquake hit the Italian Abruzzi region and its capital city of L’Aquila, causing direct damage estimated at more than 10 billion euro. In November 2009, the European Union contributed half a billion euro to the Italian emergency operations from its European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF).

European Court of Auditors (ECA) special reports are published throughout the year, presenting the results of selected audits of specific EU budgetary areas or management topics.

This special report (SR 24/2012) entitled “The European Union Solidarity Fund’s response to the 2009 Abruzzi earthquake: The relevance and cost of operations”examined whether (i) the expenditure provided for in the Implementation Agreement was compliant with the EUSF Regulation, (ii) whether the CASE (Italian acronym for “Complessi Abitativi Antisismici ed Ecosostenibili”, i.e. seismically isolated and environmentally sustainable housing) project was well planned and rapidly implemented and (iii) whether the CASE project was implemented in the most economical fashion.

The main conclusions and recommendations of the report will be presented to the press by Mr Ville Itälä, Member of the Court.
DATE AND TIME Monday, 25 February 2013 at 10:30

VENUE The RESIDENCE PALACE – International Press Centre
MAALBEEK ROOM
155, rue de la Loi, 1040 Brussels – Belgium

A PRESS KIT, consisting of the Special Report and a press release, will be made available for the press briefing. The Special Report will be published on the Court’s website, www.eca.europa.eu, in 22 official languages.

INTERPRETATION will be available in French and English.