On Thursday 10 August, the Cabinet of Ministers, at its extraordinary sitting, agreed on the support measures to address the effects caused to residential houses by the storm. The informative report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, which was produced after negotiations with the chairpersons of municipalities affected by the storm, includes the provisions on the support that municipalities will provide to residents in the form of one-off financing or renovation (restoration) works. The aid will be granted for renovation of roofs and windows of individual residential buildings and apartment blocks.
The support can be used in municipalities both as a temporary solution to repair and protect a building from destruction, as well as to restore the previous condition. It is foreseen to allocate a one-off benefit of up to EUR 3000 to individual houses, provided that the amount of aid does not exceed EUR 20 per square metre of renewable area. In turn, multi-apartment residential buildings will be granted one-off aid not exceeding EUR 20 per square metre of renewable area.
The informative report also envisages the task for municipalities to provide additional containers for the collection and management of construction waste and to cover the costs of managing and disposing of hazardous waste.
The support measures will be financed under the existing support mechanism of “Contingency Funds” where municipalities can submit a request to partially cover the expenses from the contingency funds.
In order to ensure effective support for housing renovation, the municipality council must take a decision on granting a one-off support in a crisis situation, taking into account the amount and conditions of support determined by the government. The residents are requested to apply to their municipality for the support.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development calls on the municipalities to complete the collection of information (including estimated costs) on the properties damaged by the storm in their territory and the volumes of management and disposal of construction waste, in respect of which a request for funds may be made, and to submit this information to the Ministry.