Support for flooded nations

THE European Investment Bank (EIB) said yesterday it would offer water-logged countries in central Europe millions in loans for repairing flood damage.

“The EIB is prepared to offer a special programme for the affected countries of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” EIB vice president Wolfgang Roth wrote in a letter to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other European leaders ahead of a meeting in Berlin.

Flood waters have ravaged vast swathes of central Europe in the past week, causing tens of thousands of people to be evacuated and claiming at least 91 lives in Germany, Russia, Austria and the Czech Republic.