“EU Support
for Promoting Sustainable Urban Mobility in Turkish Cities”, short for SUMP
TÜRKİYE project, of which The Union of Municipalities of Türkiye is the end
beneficiary, held an opening event in Ankara on February 1, 2023. Opening
speeches of the event were given by the Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan
Municipality and the President of UMT, Fatma Şahin; Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Directorate for EU Affairs, Director-General for Financial Cooperation and
Project Implementation, Bülent Özcan; Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure,
Director General for EU Affairs and Foreign Relations, Burak Aykan; EU
Delegation to Türkiye, Head of Economic and Social Development Section and the
First Counsellor Angel Gutierrez Hidalgo.
Şahin: “Let's
walk together, run together and build a clean world together.”
In her
speech, Şahin mentioned the efforts that were made to ensure sustainable
mobility in Türkiye, emphasized the importance of creating an eco-friendly
economy and sustainable development and underlined the importance of the SUMP
TÜRKİYE project. Şahin also touched upon the issues of zero emissions, zero
waste, and combating climate change and concluded her speech with remarks,
“let's walk, run together and build a clean world together.”
Hidalgo:
“Citizens are at the key point as the subjects of this study.”
“We focus on
public transport to make cities more liveable. Expanding public transport and
reducing the number of vehicles is very important in reducing emissions” said
Angel Gutierrez Hidalgo. He also stated that decisive steps should be taken to
bring about change as he emphasized that the project is at a key point in
raising citizens' awareness.
Özcan: “The SUMP
TÜRKİYE Project is very valuable in terms of accessing finance and transferring
information to local governments.”
Bülent Özcan
noted that finance is an important factor in the realization of projects, and
IPA resources are used for the preparation of sustainable urban transport plans
(SUMP) in many metropolitan cities in Türkiye. Stating that they see the SUMP
TÜRKİYE project as a coordinator and a speaking project, Özcan also emphasized
the importance of cooperation between projects working on the same subject.
Aykan: In our
2053 Vision, "Ensuring Smart and Sustainable Mobility in Transport and Logistics",
has been stated as a main goal.
In his
speech, our Director General Burak Aykan stated that the Ministry is
responsible for the management of the funds allocated to the transport sector
and pointed out that low-budget urban transport projects that will meet the
daily transport needs of our citizens and increase their accessibility to transport
services are at least as valuable and important as infrastructure projects.
Mentioning that the Sustainable Urban Mobility Projects were initiated one
after another under USOP and will continue, our General Manager also stated
that they follow the SUMP TÜRKİYE project closely. Underlining that our
Ministry and General Directorate work with this awareness and understanding,
our General Manager added that "Achieving Smart and Sustainable Mobility
in Transport and Logistics" is determined as a main goal in our country's
2053 vision.
Speaking at
the Key Theme Speeches of the opening event, the Head of Department for EU
Investments and IPA Director, Tijen İğci (PhD), emphasized that currently 14 projects
on accessible and inclusive transport have either been contracted or are in the
tendering stage. She also mentioned that 10 of these projects are within the
scope of SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan).
Our Head of
Department underlined that SUMP will be the driving force for the projects of
our municipalities and that these
plans are created with a strategic and integrated approach to address the
complexity of urban transport effectively. She stated that SUMP projects are
long-term strategic plans that will increase accessibility and quality of life
by providing the transition to sustainable urban mobility in the functional
urban areas of our municipalities. Emphasizing the importance of strong cooperation
and coordination with our municipalities, İğci also shared information about
the IPA III period.
The opening event ended with the panel titled “Sustainable Urban Mobility in Türkiye”. Moderated by UMT Project and Finance Unit Officer Cemal Baş; SUMP TÜRKİYE Project Director Dr Wolfgang Backhaus, EU Delegation to Türkiye, Transport Policy and Climate Change Team Coordinator Göktuğ Kara, POLIS Network Director Karen Vancluysen and ILBANK International Relations Department Head Şevket Altuğ Taşdemir participated in the panel.