Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT) provides effective representation of our municipalities in the Council of Europe and Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CoE Congress), of which our Union manages the National Secretariat works. The UMT also actively operates in coordinating our municipalities for their effective participation to the UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) and to UCLG’s Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) along with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) of which our Union is also a member.
We are also closely involved with European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), World Water Council (WWC) and conduct works in this regard.
We provide assistance to our municipalities to benefit from the EU funds and grants through the projects we coordinate and conduct with related institutions.
In addition to European Union countries, we are developing town twinning relationships with the local governments in countries with which we share a similar cultural and historical background. Therefore, we carry out local cooperation projects with local administrative unions and related institutions of those countries.
In terms of international youth works, UMT annually organizes Local International Internship Program since 2012 with the aim of providing a local governance training to the participants through instructions, practical examples and field visits including social activities and trips to various cities in Türkiye. Since the first program in 2012, LOCALINTERNational provides an international training environment to a wide range of participants from European, Asian and Middle Eastern countries to learn, socialize and see the good practices along with the examples of municipal work.