(Brussels) 293.5 million euros is the amount allocated by the European Union Solidarity Fund, following the damages caused by weather events in Italy, Austria and Romania in 2018. Today, the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament has approved such funding, and the funds will be allocated like this: 277.2 million euros to Italy for the heavy rains, floods and landslides that happened in Autumn 2018; 8.1 million euros to Austria, for the same weather events; and 8.2 million euros to the north-eastern region of Romania, for the floods that hit it in Summer 2018. “In Autumn 2018, most Italian regions, from north to south, were hit – a notice explains – by extreme weather events, which caused landslides, floods and made trees fall, and which resulted in dozens of deaths. Material damage included serious disruption of road and river networks, the flooding of public and private buildings, failures of electricity and gas infrastructures, as well as remarkable losses of timber and tourism”. In addition, the Committee on Budgets approved a 100 million euros’ increase for the EU Horizon 2020 (80 million euros for research) and Erasmus+ programmes (20 million euros for youth mobility). To become effective, such decisions will have to be approved by the EU Parliament as a whole (they should be voted upon during the plenary session due in Strasbourg from 16^th to 19^th September) and by the Council of Ministers of the European Union.