The European Union will organize a donor conference in early March to mobilize international funds to help Turkey and Syria, hit by a devastating earthquake, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
"
We are in a race against time to save lives together (...) Turkey and Syria can count on the EU
", tweeted the European official.
Support request
“
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (whose country holds the rotating EU Council Presidency) and I will host a donors' conference in early March in Brussels.
Let us mobilize funds at the international level for the affected populations
,” added Ursula von der Leyen.
"
No one should be left behind when a tragedy like this strikes a population
," she said in a statement.
This conference, organized in coordination with the Turkish authorities, “
will be open to EU Member States, neighboring countries, UN members
” and financial institutions, according to the Commission.
The EU sent first aid to Turkey a few hours after the earthquake on Monday, at the country's request.
But it initially offered only minimal aid to Syria through existing humanitarian programs, due to international sanctions against the regime in Damascus that have been in place since the start of the war in Syria in 2011.
Read alsoTurkey: the earthquake reveals the authorities' lack of anticipation
On Wednesday, the Syrian government officially requested EU assistance, through the Civil Protection Mechanism which coordinates European aid, and the Commission asked Member States to respond favorably to this request, announced in in the morning the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic.
Under the Civil Protection Mechanism, 20 EU countries as well as Albania, Montenegro and Serbia have already pledged to provide Turkey with a total of 1,500 rescue workers, as well as 100 search and rescue dogs.
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