The first information meeting of the Town Twinning Action Between Türkiye and the EU-II: Twinning for a Green Future Grant Scheme, financed by the European Union and of which the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT) is the main beneficiary, was held at the UMT headquarters.
UMT Secretary General Birol Ekici and Directorate for EU Affairs Director General of Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation Bülent Özcan were present at the opening of the meeting.
In his opening remarks, Secretary General Ekici stressed that Türkiye is one of the countries that establishes the most sister city relations in local governments. He stated that sister city relations play a major role in the development of the capacities of local governments. He said that as local governments, greener, safer and healthier cities could be built by learning more from each other.
Bülent Özcan, Director General of Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation at the Directorate for EU Affairs, said in his speech that tackling climate change has become the main agenda of the European Union. In this context, he underlined that the Town Twinning-II Grant Scheme, initiated with the theme of "green future", is an important financial resource opportunity for our municipalities. In addition, he mentioned that programmes such as EU pre-accession financial assistance (IPA) and Horizon Europe also have financing opportunities for our municipalities in many areas and the importance of local governments' participation in these programmes.
After the opening speeches, Tuğçe Özkan, Deputy Director of the Project and Finance Unit, gave a detailed presentation about the grant guide and explained to the participants the issues to be considered in the grant guide. After the presentation of the grant guide, representatives of the Central Finance and Contracts Unit informed the participants about the process of application and evaluating grant programme. Finally, Yıldırım Gündüç, EU Affairs Expert at the Directorate for EU Affairs, gave a comprehensive presentation on how to submit a project.
Town Twinning Action Between Türkiye and the EU-II: Twinning for a Green Future Grant Scheme information meetings will continue in many different provinces.
