UTES

The relations between Britain and Turkey go right back to the early 16th century and they maintain strong bilateral relations. The United Kingdom is a key supporter for Turkey’s EU membership bid. In May 2008, Queen Elizabeth II said during a visit to Turkey that, “Turkey is uniquely positioned as a bridge between the East and West at a crucial time for the European Union and the world in general".

Environmental issues have been rising up in the political agenda in the last couple of years. Enhanced knowledge and awareness about alarming environmental trends have been highlighted by several assessments released recently. Economic-environmental projections show that world greenhouse gas emissions are expected to grow by 37% to 2030 and by 52% to 2050 if no new policy action is introduced. To meet increasing demands for food and bio-fuels world agricultural land use will need to expand by an estimated 10% to 2030; 1 billion more people will be living in areas of severe water stress by 2030 than today; and premature deaths caused by ground-level ozone worldwide would quadruple by 2030. For some of these reasons outlined above, it is very important and necessary to have enhanced the relations in the areas of climate change between countries such as UK and Turkey.

In tackling environmental problems globally, UTES is well aware of the nature and size of the problem and aware of the extend of the it’s social responsibility, thus commits to diligently conduct its work, taking a determinant and active role in the area of cooperation for environmental field for the benefit of both countries, as well as the regions.

Co-operation with Environmental Stakeholders

Dealing with environmental problems, "participation" has emerged as a central theme. There has, for some time, been a growing recognition within the government and public at large that the future of Turkish environmental protection depends on more effective participation of multiple stakeholders. There are many environmental stakeholders in Turkey that are governmental institutions, NGOs and international organizations. Therefore, UTES aims to establish strong links and provide a transparent platform with all of these stakeholders in Turkey such as ENGAGE and others as well as UK based organizations to generate niche and effective projects

Funding

Funding of UTES has so far met by Delta-Eko and their commitment will continue till the end of 2009. The funding requirement for administrative expenses and some of the main projects will be covered by the contributions of Delta within this 14 months period. Although membership revenues are expected to be received from individuals and corporate members of the Society and as these receipts will be taken only for once and considered representative rather than to serve to generate revenue for projects, they are not being looked as the main source of funding.

UTES will seek sponsorships for some of the projects, mainly in achieving its programmes aimed at children, and a full programme will be submitted to members for approval and assistance will be sought to secure sponsorships.

There also have been contacts already generated with some International institutions, which as UTES will qualify for some form of financial assistance.

It is estimated that over € 1,000 million a year is allocated to NGO projects directly by the Commission, the major part in the field of external relations for development co-operation, human rights, democracy programmes, and, in particular, humanitarian aid (€ 400 million).

Other important allocations are in the social (€70 million), educational (€50 million), and environmental sectors within the EU.

In practical terms, UTES is expected to receive two types of funding in this framework

• Submission of the proposal for a concrete project under an EU programme which covers the area of activity and, if successful, this particular project will be co-financed by the EU through an action grant.
• Under some programmes, and provided the UTES pursues an aim of general European interest or has an objective forming part of a European Union policy', the EU may directly subsidize your organization through an operating grant. If this is the case, the grant is based on an analysis of the dimension of the activities, their scope, annual work plan, its compatibility with the policy priorities, etc. rather than on individual projects.