Initially announced for 16 March, the international donors’ conference for the victims of the devastating earthquakes of 6 February in Turkey and Syria, organised by the EU in coordination with the Turkish authorities, will finally be held on 20 March, the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council announced on Friday 10 March.
The aim is to raise funds commensurate with the scale of the disaster, which has caused over 50,000 deaths and massive destruction in southern Turkey and north-western Syria, and to coordinate the response to continue emergency aid and support recovery and reconstruction/rehabilitation in the affected areas of both countries. The Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, and the Swedish Minister for International Cooperation and Trade, Johan Forssell, recently visited Turkey to prepare for the conference to be co-chaired by Ursula von der Leyen and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (see EUROPE 13127/5).
The donors’ conference will be open to EU Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries, neighbouring and partner countries, members of the G20, except Russia, member states of the Gulf Cooperation Organisation, as well as the United Nations, international organisations, humanitarian actors and international and European financial institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Invitations are about to be sent out, the European co-organisers said in a joint statement on Friday.
They have decided to hold this event in conjunction with the second European Humanitarian Forum, which will take place on 20 and 21 March, to consider once more how to mobilise more funds, including from non-traditional donors and the private sector, to address the funding gap for growing humanitarian needs around the world.
The seventh Brussels conference on the future of Syria and the region will take place on 14-15 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)