BALKANS: Romania and Bulgaria are to ask for international help to repair damage from floods that have swept across the Balkan countries this month, killing at least 15 people.
More than 12,000 Romanians fled their homes and at least 50,000 Bulgarian houses were destroyed during weeks of torrential rain, which initial estimates suggest may have caused €1 billion of damage in the EU candidate nations.
Bulgaria's government has already requested €75 million from Brussels to help the clean-up operation, while Romania has asked for €20 million to be redirected from other EU-funded projects to pay for urgent repairs to roads and bridges.
At least 10 people were killed in Romania as extreme weather swept across 31 of the country's 42 counties, wreaking even more havoc than major floods which caused damage of almost €500 million in the spring.
The rains have left more than 20,000 Romanian homes and 100,000 hectares of farmland inundated, and 229 villages without electricity. More than 1,200km of roads have been destroyed or damaged, along with more than 400 bridges.
"We will request financial support. . . from countries that are members of the EU, members of Nato, countries from Asia and from the Middle East," said foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, after announcing the allocation of about €250 million to the clean-up operation.
In Bulgaria, at least five people died in floods that swamped more than 26,000 hectares of farmland, doing an estimated €77 million of damage. The country also suffered major flooding in late spring, when six people were killed.
Both countries have yet to calculate the losses incurred through damage to crops and the death of livestock. Bulgaria's hard-hit wheat and barley harvests are expected to be at least a fifth smaller than forecast.
A Unesco world heritage site in Bulgaria, a series of 12th century churches hewn into the rock near Ivanovo in the northeast, is reportedly in grave danger.