Spain is seeking European approval to repurpose more than a billion euros of post-pandemic recovery funds to make Valencia more resilient against climate change after the Mediterranean region suffered catastrophic heavy rains last year.
The talks started a few weeks after torrential rains caused floods in October that killed over 220 people in commuter towns to the east of Valencia. Experts say the disaster was worsened by patchy flood defenses, many of which had been earmarked for improvement works decades earlier.
Reallocated EU funds would be a small part of what companies such as Spain’s Acciona, Sacyr,