In Niscemi the emergency is double: there is the land that landslides and takes the town down with it, there is the issue of “then” with all the unknowns of reconstruction. The first of these is of an economic nature: how much money will be needed? How to cover expenses? A helping hand for Italy, dealing not only with the landslide but also with the damage left by Cyclone Harry, may come from the European Union. There is an ad hoc fund which the government intends to draw on. However, the idea put forward by the opposition (and relaunched by the Sicilian Parliament) of diverting part of the resources ready for the Strait Bridge was rejected. Meanwhile the suspension of mortgage installment payments will be triggered for the citizens of Niscemi.
The situation in Niscemi
As we write and while politicians debate on funds, the line of the landslide continues to advance towards the town and the red area is destined to widen. The number of displaced people, currently 1,500, will increase further.
“Right now we are talking about a landslide movement which is approximately 350 million cubic metres. To make a comparison, the Vajont disaster of 1963 moved 263 million. So technically we are almost one and a half times the amount of mountain and territory and landslide mass that fell compared to that of the Vajont”, said the head of the Civil Protection department Fabio Ciciliano on Start on Sky Tg24.
#Landslide #Niscemito support rescue activities of #firefightersthe topography experts of the National Corps have created an important visual analysis: an animated GIF that compares the situation BEFORE and AFTER the event, using satellite images… pic.twitter.com/DKfraDyKSh
— Fire Brigade (@vigilidelfuoco) January 28, 2026
EU lifesaver
It was the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, who announced the government’s move: Italy intends to “ask for help from the European Solidarity Fund” for Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia affected by Hurricane Harry. “We also talked about it at the Council of Ministers, it is right to proceed as we always have and there has always been a generous response from Europe”, he clarified.
🇪🇺🇮🇹 Regarding the serious situation in the territories of #Calabria, #Sicily And #Sardinia affected by Hurricane Harry, I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister @Nello_Musumecithe President @RenatoSchifanithe President @robertoocchiuto and the President @ATodde regarding the damage… pic.twitter.com/8k0o1B0qXg
— Raffaele Fitto (@RaffaeleFitto) January 29, 2026
A road that appears viable and could translate into a breath of fresh air for Italy. This is confirmed by the words of the vice president of the European Commission and former minister of the Meloni government, Raffaele Fitto: “The tools that the Commission makes available are different, starting from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF). The Fund provides financial assistance to Member States affected by serious natural disasters and Italy will be able to submit a request for support according to the established procedures”.
The help mechanism
The European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) offers financial assistance to member countries affected by major disasters natural disasters and health emergencies. The money that is disbursed is used to supplement that spent by the individual State that has to deal with the problem. They can be used for multiple purposes: the restoration of basic infrastructure; temporary accommodation measures and costs related to immediate relief services; the safety of prevention infrastructures such as dams; cultural heritage protection measures; clean-up operations; measures for healthcare for the affected population.
Payments are limited to financing measures intended to mitigate non-insurable damages and must be recovered if the costs incurred to compensate the damage are subsequently covered by third parties.
To access the Fund there is a three-step procedure: the affected State must submit to the European Commission an application for intervention more than 12 weeks from the date of the disaster. The financial assistance proposed by the Commission will have to be approved by Advise and from European Parliament.
Italy has already benefited from it, for example for the floods in Emilia-Romagna in 2023 and for the earthquake in Central Italy in 2016-2017.
The bridge cannot be touched
From the Executive, however, comes a firm refusal to the idea of diverting part of the resources intended for the construction of the Bridge over the Strait to Niscemi. The proposal is from the Democratic Party but was relaunched by the entire Sicilian regional parliament, but there is the government’s wall. “These are coffee table topics”, says Nello Musumeci, minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies to Rtl 102.5.
For Musumeci “subtracting money from one of the largest infrastructures in the world, which is needed by the South to be able to project itself with all its credentials in a Mediterranean that is changing and once again becoming strategic belongs to the party of benaltrism. But there is still a lot to do and it is the culture that has accompanied us southerners for a long time, but not only in the south. The money for the bridge is money for the bridge, the money for reconstruction belongs to the reconstruction department which is part of my delegations and which are already available. So it is an absolutely specious argument from those who are historically against strategic infrastructures. Some might want us to go back to stilts, but we have a very different vision.” Musumeci assures: “For Niscemi the money is already in the budget of the reconstruction department, known as the ‘Casa Italia’ Department, and if it were not enough the Government would be in a position to be able to recover other funds. But we need to understand how much is needed, how many people we have to welcome in this new neighborhood which will have to be created in an absolutely safe area and far from any landslide context”.
“The funds intended for the bridge over the Strait will not be diverted to the damage caused by bad weather in the South”, also reiterates the deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, on the sidelines of a conference on Roberto Maroni in Montecitorio. “No – he insists – because they are funds for investments, we need to know things. Then we have almost 30 billion in construction sites open in Sicily, what do we do? Do we block them? We will find the funds needed for Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia but without blocking the schools, the hospitals, the bridges, the tunnels, the TAV, the Brenner tunnel”.
