"It is likely that 2013 will be remembered as the "year of the flood," sais GUY CARPENTER's "Global Catastrophe Review, 2013" report. For the CEE region, though, also 2014 may compete for this unappealing title. Exactly one year after the historical flooding in the Balkans which cause losses of over EUR 17 billion in May-June 2013, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia were drowned by torrential rainfalls which washed away lives, houses and crops causing losses of over EUR 4 billion.

In this context, one could say that the high impacting weather events in the Central and Eastern Europe are not longer isolated phenomenon, but rather seem to set a new risk profile. A recent study published by Nature Climate Change journal sais instances of very extreme floods, occurring up to now about once every 50 years, could shorten to about every 30 years, while cases of extreme damage now occurring once every 16 years could shorten to once every 10 years. As a result, the European's current average losses of EUR 4.9 billion a year could reach EUR 23.5 billion by 2050, a rise of almost 380%. Moreover, considering the socio-economical development pace, the CEE region could account for a larger share of these increased figures.

Still, despite the obvious increased frequency and intensity of the extreme weather phenomenon, nor the governments or the citizens in the region seem very convinced that acting more vigorously for mitigating the effects of such events is necessary. In most of the region's countries property insurance penetration is rather small or even decreasing in the last years.

The 2014 edition of The International CAtastrophic Risks Forum will be focused on the flooding risk issues, trying to asses both the potential effects and the possible solutions to stimulate the property insurance penetration.

The event is co-produced by the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, UNSAR, the APPA foundation and Media XPRIMM and will take place on October 8th, at the Palace of the Parliament. Additional information and registration are available on the event's website.

See you soon,