The European Commission has approved €846 million in aid for Spain from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to support reconstruction efforts following the devastating floods that struck the Valencia region in October 2024.
Announcing the package, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said:
The floods in Valencia were a European tragedy. This is why we are working on a European recovery effort. The funding we have just approved will help rebuild what the disaster destroyed. It also serves as a concrete expression of EU solidarity with our Spanish friends who still carry the weight of loss and grief.
She reiterated the message in a post on X.
The announcement marks a sharp contrast with the situation six months after the Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos (DANA) floods, when von der Leyen faced growing pressure from local residents over the pace and scale of Brussels’ response. At the time, an emergency advance of €100 million, disbursed in March 2025 to support initial recovery efforts, was widely criticised as too little, too late.
The final EUSF allocation, swiftly approved by both the European Parliament and the Council, is the second-largest payout ever made by the bloc’s main disaster relief instrument since its creation in 2002. Yet despite the scale of the package, criticism over the slow pace of the response has damaged the standing of both the European Commission and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez among many Valencians.
