Brussels – The EU reaches out to Ankara. One year after the devastating Feb. 6, 2023, earthquake that killed over 53,000 people in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in Syria, Brussels is fulfilling another piece of the commitment it made back in March to support the country’s reconstruction with 1 billion euros. Today (Feb. 7), it approved a 400 million grant from the European Solidarity Fund (ESF), the biggest financial contribution granted in the Scope of the EUSF to a candidate country. Signing the agreement on the first anniversary of the earthquake were EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform Elisa Ferreira and Turkish Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Mehmet Kemal Bozay. The grant was made possible partly thanks to the green light for a €1.5 billion increase in the EU Solidarity Reserve budget for 2024-2027 that EU heads of state and government reached at the Feb. 1 Extraordinary European Council.
With this tranche, the EU mobilized almost all of the 1 billion pledged during the International Donors’ Conference, organized hurriedly in Brussels as early as the month after the earthquake. On that occasion, donors from around the world pledged 7 billion for the affected populations in Turkey and Syria. Today’s agreement stipulates that Ankara will have 18 months to use the funds and must submit an implementation report after six months. The priorities outlined by Turkish authorities are restoring infrastructure in health, education, and water and wastewater management, providing temporary housing for the displaced population, and implementing measures to protect the country’s rich cultural heritage. As many as 16 million people suffered extensive damage to housing, infrastructure, and primary services in the earthquake areas.
Kemal Bozay, Elisa Ferreira
“When support is needed, Europe responds, not only for its member states but also for its neighbors. The EUSF is a solidarity initiative with countries and people,” Commissioner Ferreira said. Since being established in 2002, the EU has mobilized over 8.2 billion euros through the Solidarity Fund to intervene in 109 natural disasters and 20 health emergencies in 24 member states — plus the United Kingdom — and three accession countries — Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia.
In Turkey, before the EUSF, the EU had immediately intervened with the Civil Protection Mechanism: 21 member states, along with Albania, Montenegro, Norway, and Serbia, offered search and rescue teams and emergency vehicles in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. “During that time, our only consolation was the strong solidarity of our friends. The EU and member states were among the first to lend a hand. We are sincerely grateful and deeply touched by this solidarity,” Deputy Minister Bozay said on the sidelines of the signing of the agreement. “All the commitments made by the participants of the Donors’ Conference will materialize in the coming days.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
