Letter to the EU Commission re: Solidarity Fund Madeira

Johannes Hahn

Commissioner for Regional Policy 

Your Excellency,

The Partido da Nova Democracia, a political party which is represented in the Legislative Parliament of Madeira, having read Your Excellency’s answer to UKIP MEP Nigel Farage’s question to the Commission regarding the EU Solidarity Fund/Madeira (E-11078/10EN), would like to put the following considerations before the Commission.

Your answer states that the Portuguese Government’s application contains ‘all the relevant information’ and that the damage estimates it contained were ‘found to be plausible’, but Mr. Barroso’s Commission evidences the same reticence as the Portuguese Government in sharing any details.

The meager information the Commission has made available raises even greater doubts about the damages claimed by the Regional Government and raises suspicions that the funds made available through the Lei de Meios for reconstruction may be diverted to finance investments that are totally unrelated to the damages caused on the 20^th of February 2010.

Is the Commission aware, for instance, that the Regional Government, without informing the parliament, has unilaterally approved a 40€ million project for part of the Funchal waterfront to be financed through the Lei de Meios as part of the 127€ million attributed to repair coastal infrastructures?

This is NOT a project to repair damage and remove the rock and debris dumped as a temporary landfill on the waterfront, but rather a NEW project to DESTROY the only natural beach in Funchal bay and to build a series of entirely new infrastructures which include new squares, new marinas and a new docking port!

A quick glance at the detailed report, identifying the damage spots and the extent of the damage in each instance, would indeed no doubt be sufficient to assess the plausibility of the damages claimed - if such report was ever drawn up in the first place, which we believe NOT to be the case. Not even members of the Portuguese Parliament have been given access to such a report.

The Commission’s own answer is utterly unconvincing, for though it claims to have been given all the relevant information, from the sloppy nonsense it saw fit to divulge, we can only surmise that this could mean one of two things:

A)     That the information contained in the Commission’s answer is the full extent of the information supplied by the Portuguese Government and that that has been deemed sufficient for the purposes of the EU Solidarity Fund application.

B)      That if there is any real detailed report, Mr. Barroso’s Commission is deliberately withholding the details, with the full knowledge that the figures claimed are unrealistic and that the proposed funding is to be spent on new projects which have nothing to do with the 20^th of February disaster.

Given the evidence of the intended misuse and diversion of disaster funding, we once more request that the Commission, without further ado, make available or consultable ALL the information it has received from the Portuguese Government on the 1080€ Million estimated damages caused by the rainstorm of the 20^th of February.

Please understand that this is an issue very dear to Madeirans, given that this funding may be used to commit the biggest environmental attack ever committed in Madeira - the destruction of the only natural beach in the bay of Funchal.

For this reason, on the 20^th of February 2011, one year after the disaster, over two thousand people formed a human chain on the site of the proposed project, to demand the removal of the landfill and the restoration of the beach. Two thousand people,  who cannot but be considered courageous in defying a 35-year-old regime,  which is successively elected with blatant violations of election laws and which does not hesitate to insult and persecute all those who stand up for their rights or dare to speak their mind.

It is time for Europe give a signal that there are values that higher than money, political conveniences and outright cronyism.

We furthermore add that all information solicited will be sent to the judicial authorities to investigate the eventual illegality of use of national and/or European funding.

Yours sincerely,

Eduardo Welsh,

On behalf of the leadership of the Partido da Nova Democracia

Funchal, 24^rd of February 2011