Following the devastating earthquakes of February 2023, the Congress undertakes a study visit to Türkiye from 6 to 8 September 2023, to inform a report on local and regional responses to major crises.
The visit will involve various meetings with national authorities and international organisations in Ankara and encounters with local representatives in Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Nurdağı and Hatay; all areas which have been heavily affected by the consequences of the devastating earthquakes on 6 February 2023. The rapporteurs Jean-Paul Bastin (Belgium, EPP/CCE) and Christian Debève (France, ILDG) will notably exchange views with representatives of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT/TBB), the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change and different municipalities affected; they will also meet the representatives of local NGOs involved in the immediate and continuous disaster response.
The aim of the study visit will be to examine how local, regional and national authorities have responded to this natural disaster over the past months and to identify the key challenges encountered. In this context, the delegation not only intends to understand the persistent needs in terms of assistance to the local population, but also the measures initiated to rebuild destroyed territories and to integrate any lessons learned into future decision-making and construction processes. One of the objectives of the report will also be to contribute to building up a crisis-response model that will be useful for all countries in Europe in preventing or, where prevention is not possible, mitigating the effects of natural disasters in the future.
In the upcoming months, the same delegation will also spend a visit to Spain in order to study the dramatic effects of climate change on the country and local and regional responses to it.
Regular updates about the activity will be provided via the Congress news and the webpage of the Current Affairs Committee overseeing the preparation of this report.
