European Committee of the Regions (CoR) 28. Türkiye Working Group and 8. Enlargement Day took place on 4-5 May 2023 in Brussels. Participants from Türkiye Working Groups attended to the meeting via online.
4 May 2023 is the day of 28. Türkiye Working Group and earthquakes in Türkiye were the main agenda topic at the meeting. In the opening speeches of the meeting, Antje Grotheer, Chair of the TWG, characterized the earthquakes in Türkiye as a major disaster and stated that Türkiye is going through very difficult times. Grotheer noted that European Union has been one of the fastest country to bring assistance to Türkiye through the Civil Protection Mechanism, Grotheer underlined the importance of bringing people and institutions together for a new dimension in Türkiye-EU relations as well.
Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Türkiye to the EU Faruk Kaymakcı thanked his European colleagues for their support to Türkiye after the earthquake. He expressed that Türkiye is a candidate country and the negotiations have entered a pause period after 2019 and the EU should treat candidate countries more fairly.
Tunç Soyer, Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, stated that local and regional authorities should create resilient cities in cooperation with all stakeholders. Soyer mentioned İzmir‘s earthquake in 2020 as well and expressed there are problems especially regarding accessing loans and grants therefore proposed to develop financing tools for municipalities.
Secretary General of Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipality Rüstem Keleş stated that disaster management has developed and undergone serious transformations compared to the past periods. Keleş expressed that disaster management plans should be dynamic and planned according to social conditions, taking into account the magnitude of the earthquake, and emphasized the importance of solidarity.
Mayor of Melikgazi Municipality Mustafa Palancıoğlu stated that local and regional authorities have been playing an important role in building resilient and durable cities. He expressed that municipalities from different cities are still providing services and assistance in the earthquake zone and the staff of Melikgazi Municipality have been supporting health services in the region of earthquakes as well.
The Enlargement Day Meeting held on Friday in 5 May
2023. The topics are EU Enlargement Policy Back in The Limelight, Topical Debate
Linked to The 2023 European Year Of Skills and Building up Capacities in The
Local Communities.
Mehmet Ergün Turan, President of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) and Mayor of Fatih Municipality, took the floor at the session “EU Enlargement Policy Back in The Limelight" and stated that the European Union Enlargement Policy is the source of the EU's soft power. He stated that the EU is the biggest peace project of today and the source of regional and global policies. He stated that Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia were declared of candidate country to the EU caused to the enlargement policy fore again. But problems such as migration and economy came to the agenda again after the war with Russia in Ukraine. Turan stated as a person elected by the people that there is a breach of trust between Türkiye and the EU. He emphasized that Türkiye has been subjected to double standards in this process and said that the EU's policies are expected to be sincere and consistent. Finally, he expressed that Türkiye's face has always been towards the West and that EU values will continue to rise as long as the Enlargement Policy continues.
Antje Grotheer, Chair of Türkiye Working Group stated that 70 percent of the EU Acquis covers local and regional authorities and the topic of earthquakes were discussed in the Türkiye Working Group. Local authorities will be an effective factor in the EU accession processes of countries. She emphasized that the candidates are very enthusiastic about joining of European Union since EU programs such as Erasmus+ continue at a great pace. It is important to support young people at local and regional level.
In the meeting, President of the European Committee of the Regions Vasco Alves Cordeiro, Rapporteur Anna Magyar and Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström took floor and expressed their views.