Gornja Radgona - The Slovenian system of civil protection and disaster relief will receive EUR 25 million for modernisation from the EU recovery and resilience mechanism and another EUR 20 million for the purchase of special equipments to deal with climate change. The funding is expected in the 2021-2027 period.

The EUR 20 million will come from cohesion funds that were originally earmarked for other purposes in the 2014-2020 period but have not been spent. Now, they need to be spent by 2023.

Until 2027, the entire system will thus receive more than EUR 100 million in funds to be used on shared infrastructure, coordination, equipment and training on all levels, heard participants of a panel at the Sobra fair of defence, security, protection and rescue in Gornja Radgona on Thursday.

Darko But, the head of the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, said the first package of equipment would include 40 cargo vehicles with more than 150 containers for various types of accidents and 10 slurry pumps.

The EU recovery and resilience funds are to be spent on the construction of a national civil protection and disaster relief centre, which will also include all other emergency response structures.

Three centres for training and equipment storage are planned: a new flood protection centre in Pomurje, a new centre dedicated to ice storms and storms in general in Kočevsko, and a renovated wildfire protection centre in Sežana.

According to Defence Minister Matej Tonin, floods, wildfires, draughts, frost, hail, wind storms, ice storms and other climate-related disasters have caused EUR 2.5 billion in damage in Slovenia in the past 12 years.

Forecasts that extreme weather will become even more frequent call for systemic changes to make managing such risks more efficient, he said, stressing the need to strengthen the country's system for civil protection and disaster relief.