Earlier today, at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, Maltese MEPs David Casa and Alex Agius Saliba requested the EU to provide emergency and aid funds to Malta over damages incurred during Storm Harry. Portugal and Spain are eligible to receive regional EU emergency funds for damage and infrastructural repair after recent storms.
Alex Agius Saliba also mentioned regional funds in his speech but these are a separate matter. The reason Malta struggles to access funds from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) – sometimes confused with regional funds – after events like Storm Harry is that the fund’s eligibility criteria impose high damage thresholds that disproportionately disadvantage small member states like Malta. For national-level applications, damages must exceed 0.6% of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI), a bar that is extremely difficult for Malta to meet due to its small economy—even significant local destruction often falls short in absolute or proportional terms.
Larger countries like Spain and Portugal (or their regions, such as in southern Italy/Sicily for the same storm) can qualify more easily either nationally (with higher total damage volumes) or through the regional pathway, where damages need to exceed 1.5% of regional GDP.
This structural imbalance leaves Malta “out in the cold” despite similar impacts according to David Casa, while Spain, Portugal, and parts of Italy receive support for their storms.
Alex Agius Saliba did not miss this opportunity to highlight his extremist views concluding his speech by saying that Europe “should invest less on weapons and more on these matters”. His position has been consistently aligned with the European far-left and far-right on European security and defence.
Controversy is ongoing in Malta over the government’s aim to compensate illegal establishments over damages incurred during Storm Harry. .
Newsroom
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