EU commissioner tours flood-hit town

EU commissioner tours flood-hit town

BELGRADE -- EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn over the weekend visited the flood-devastated municipality of Obrenovac and met with Serbian officials.

"I have only seen damage of proportions that come close to this in Poland, but still not to this extent," Hahn told Tanjug on Saturday, and stressed that the flood victims needed assistance.

He said it should be pointed to the extent of damage caused by the floods by showing pictures taken on the ground via European media to make solidarity of Europeans grow even more.

"People in Serbia need assistance. Their suffering has no end, although they have been underwater for as many as ten days now. As I have heard, it all depends on the Danube right now, for as long as the Sava cannot flow into the Danube, there will be no improvement of the situation," Hahn said, adding that this is a great tragedy.

Noting that "the whole Europe stands ready to help," he pointed to the example of Austria, stressing that "the help of immediate neighbors still stands out the most."

When it comes to drawing money from the EU Solidarity Fund to help cover part of the costs to rebuild the country after the disaster, Serbia, a candidate for membership, "is already treated like a member state," Hahn said.

The support of the European Union for Serbia after being badly hit by heavy flooding recently is overwhelming and we have already reached an agreement on mechanisms to use aid from the Union, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said on Saturday.

At a joint press conference after a meeting he had with European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn in Belgrade today, Vučić expressed his...