By Agnes Szucs
BRUSSELS (AA) – EU member states on Monday gave the green light to provide €400 million (approximately $426 million) in disaster relief aid to Türkiye in the aftermath of twin earthquakes that struck the country's southern regions in February of this year.
The Council of the European Union announced in a statement that it has agreed on amendments to the EU budget that would allow it to “provide a total of €454.8 million in disaster relief aid to Romania and Italy, to repair damage inflicted by natural disasters in 2022, and to Türkiye, in relation to the earthquakes in February 2023.”
Ankara will be the biggest beneficiary of the aid package, as the bloc commits “€400 million to provide assistance to Türkiye further to the major earthquakes affecting southern Türkiye in the region of Kahramanmaras and the region of Hatay in February 2023,” the statement added.
Romania and Italy will receive €33.9 million (approximately $36.15 million) and €20.9 million (approximately $22.29 million), respectively, to aid in recovery from severe droughts and floods.
The European Parliament has yet to approve the decision.
On Feb. 6, magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck southern and southeastern Türkiye, claiming the lives of over 50,000 people.
Some 13.5 million people have been affected across 11 provinces in Türkiye, namely Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.