German Interior Minister Otto Schily has called for the creation of a specific European disaster fund amid the worst floods to hit central Europe in living memory.
He said the fund could help with the reconstruction of regions stricken by catastrophe.
"Unfortunately, we can be sure that disasters like this will happen again in years to come" because of global warming, he said.
The European Commission said on Thursday that it had been able to earmark some funds to provide disaster relief for Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.
Earlier this week the European Union had said it was unable to offer aid to member states faced with massive flood damage because such emergency funds had not been allocated for in its EU budget.
The cost of relief and reconstruction in the affected regions is likely to be huge - Germany alone says it will run into billions of euros.
However, European Commission president Romano Prodi warned that the freak floods could not be used by countries in the single currency zone as an excuse to abandon their commitments to limit public deficits