The application will include a request for advance payment. The deadline for the submission of the application to the European Commission is 27 October 2023.

The affected country must prepare and submit the application for assistance from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) within 12 weeks of the first damage caused by the disaster. Given the tight timeframe, the Slovenian Government decided on 9 September 2023 to use the internationally recognised Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) to assess the damage caused by the floods. PDNA upgrades the national damage assessment methodologies. Comprehensive damage survey and estimation is time-consuming; the Republic of Slovenia, like many other EU counterparts that had also applied for financial assistance from the EUSF, opted to use the PDNA method. PDNA is designed to enable a comprehensive and rapid assessment of the impact of a disaster and a preparation of the corresponding recovery plans. It allows for a uniform and comparable approach to the assessment of the costs needed to restore normal life by taking into account that a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction may take years to complete.

The total direct damage caused by the natural disaster and its impact on the population, the economy, and the environment were assessed by the individual line ministries and stand at about 9.9 billion euros, some 7.9 billion euros representing public costs. The estimated eligible costs amount to nearly 6.8 billion euros. Eligible costs are defined as the public expenditure committed to dealing with the damage caused by a major disaster and fall under the main categories of eligible expenditure set out in the EUSF regulation.  

The following essential emergency operations may receive support from the EUSF in line with the EUSF regulation:

• restoring the working order of infrastructure and plant in the fields of energy, water and wastewater, telecommunications, transport, health, and education;
• providing temporary accommodation and funding rescue services to meet the needs of the population concerned;
• securing preventive infrastructure and measures of protection of cultural heritage;
• cleaning up disaster-stricken areas, including natural zones;
• measures aiming at rapidly providing assistance, including medical, to the population affected by a major public health emergency and to protect the population from the risk of being affected.

As it is known, Slovenia can expect to receive and advance payment of the EUSF financial contribution of up to 100 million euros already this year, and a further 300 million euros in 2024.