The European Union and the Council of Europe will keep supporting authorities of Türkiye in their efforts to align with the European standards in crucial areas – rule of law, protection of human rights and democracy. The reforms in these areas are crucial for improving the lives of people of Türkiye and in the previous phase of the joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” significant results have been achieved, paving the way to further activities on the reform path of Türkiye.

Under the third phase of the programme, the European Union and the Council of Europe have allocated €3.24 million to four actions in Türkiye. The actions support the strengthening of human rights protection in the context of migration, fight against money laundering, fostering women’s access to justice and digital citizenship education in Türkiye.

In her introductory remarks, Çagrı Çakır, Head of Department of Political Affairs in the Directorate for the European Union of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye, focused on the achieved results in the field of fundamental rights during the second phase of the Horizontal Facility programme, as well as on current priorities in this area. “The Council of Europe standards and the EU acquis are our guiding principles, and the Horizontal Facility actions are opening path to the new reforms”, stated Çakır.

Odoardo Como, Head of Co-operation at the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye said that what is done under the Horizontal Facility programme is critical for implementation of human rights standards. As he said, “we need to be committed to the European values and to keep constantly promoting them in our daily life”.

Schnutz Rudolf Dürr, Head of Programming and Resource Mobilisation Department at the Directorate of Programme Co-ordination of the Council of Europe said on this occasion: “The Council of Europe together with the European Union remains committed to accompanying Türkiye in its reform agenda in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy. To this end, co-operation and communication between all partners remain key elements for sustaining the results of the programme.”

The meeting with the beneficiaries discussed key achievements of the actions implemented in Türkiye so far, as well as plans for continuing the successful co-operation.

The joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” is a co-operation initiative, running from 2023 until 2026. It enables the Beneficiaries to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with European standards, which is also a priority for the EU enlargement process. The current, third phase of the programme, is worth €41 million (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).