This Regulation establishes a temporary framework called RESTORE (Regional Emergency Support to Reconstruction) to provide immediate support to regions affected by natural disasters in the EU. It amends existing regulations on the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to enable quick financial assistance for reconstruction and social support in affected areas. The framework specifically targets floods and wildfires that occurred in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.The Regulation introduces several key structural changes to existing EU funds:
- Creates a new specific objective under the Investment for jobs and growth goal to channel ERDF and Cohesion Fund support for reconstruction
- Allows Member States to program up to 10% of their initial ESF+ and ERDF allocations for disaster response
- Establishes a higher co-financing rate of up to 95% for disaster-related priorities
- Introduces additional pre-financing of 25% for disaster response measures
- Enables retroactive funding for completed projects related to disasters occurring between January 2024 and December 2025
The most significant provisions include:
- Support for restoration of damaged infrastructure, including public facilities, business assets and natural areas
- Temporary measures like short-time work schemes (up to 18 months) and emergency healthcare access
- Basic assistance including food aid without requiring accompanying measures (up to 6 months)
- Requirement to follow the ‘build back better’ principle to increase community resilience
- Measures to prevent overlap with other EU instruments, national support or private insurance
- Simplified procedures for programming and implementing disaster response measures
