At midday on Tuesday, 7 February, the European Commission indicated that—faced with the scale of the disaster caused by the very powerful earthquake and its aftershocks, which struck Turkey and neighbouring Syria on Monday, 6 February—the European Union has been working “around the clock” to increase its assistance; the provisional death toll was nearly 6,000 people in both countries at that time.
In response to Turkey’s request for assistance through the Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), the EU has “mobilised more than 30 search and rescue teams and medical teams collectively from 21 European countries. [...] Eleven teams are already on the ground, and the others are gradually arriving as well”, spokesperson Balazs Ujvari told the press.
Earlier in the day, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič had thanked, via his Twitter account, all the contributing countries—Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain—for their solidarity.
At midday on Monday, Syria called on the international community for help but did not activate the UCPM (see EUROPE 13115/7). While the procedure provides this solidarity mechanism be activated by a state in distress in order for the aid to be activated, “that does not prevent us from contributing to rescue efforts through [...] our humanitarian partners in the country”, assured the spokesperson, indicating that the EU was considering increasing its humanitarian aid and was in contact with these organisations, which are now going to direct their aid in Syria to the devastated areas.
All EU institutions have been mobilised in order to effect a coordinated European response to this tragedy. European leaders are reportedly expected to express their solidarity during the extraordinary meeting of the European Council on 9–10 February. A provisional version of the draft conclusions, dated 6 February, mentions the earthquake in Turkey and Syria (https://aeur.eu/f/58q ).
On Monday evening, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU indicated that a meeting of the EU Council’s Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) group was held. In fact, the Swedish Presidency activated this advisory body of the EU Council, whose mission is to strengthen the European Union’s ability to take rapid decisions when facing major cross-sectoral crises requiring a response at the EU level.
In the European Parliament on Monday, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs David McAllister (EPP, German), Chair of the Committee on Development Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish), and Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries Isabel Santos (S&D, Portuguese) expressed their solidarity and full support for the measures. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life and the terrible devastation [...]. We applaud and support the immediate response of the European Union”, they emphasised in a joint statement. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)