Press Release: Flood protection: Commission proposes concerted EU action

The European Commission published proposals on 12 July 2004 for concerted European Union action on flood risk management to improve protection against flooding. The Commission proposes a number of actions. These include flood risk management plans for affected river basins and coastal zones, flood risk maps showing the areas at risk of flooding, co-ordination of information exchange, ensuring the contribution of all relevant EU policies and increasing public awareness. Between 1998 and 2002, Europe suffered over 100 major damaging floods, including the catastrophic floods along the Danube and Elbe rivers in 2002. Since 1998, floods have caused some 700 deaths, the displacement of about half a million people and at least €25 billion in insured economic losses.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/water/pdf/com_2004_472_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/water/pdf/com_2004_472_en.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/water/index.html http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/water/index.html

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