A European Union Solidarity Fund, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Fund’, is hereby established to enable the Community to respond in a rapid, efficient and flexible manner to emergency situations under the terms of this Regulation.

The aim of the Fund is to complement the efforts of the States concerned and to cover a share of their public expenditure in order to help the beneficiary State to carry out the following essential emergency operations, depending on the type of disaster:

• Immediate restoration to working order of infrastructure and plant in the fields of energy, water and waste water, telecommunications, transport, health and education.
• Providing temporary accommodation and funding rescue services to meet the immediate needs of the population concerned.
• Immediate securing of preventive infrastructures and measures of immediate protection of the cultural heritage.
• Immediate cleaning up of disaster-stricken areas, including natural zones.

The Community provisional funding available for the programme is:

• 1.000,00 Million EUR (Orientation of the budget)