Turkey's State of the Environment through the Spectacles of the EU

Abstract

Turkey is in the long process of becoming a member of the European Union and the Environment is one of the crucial headings in the negotiation processes. In the advancement to membership volumes of EU directives have to be transposed and environment, by itself, is a challenging area. The environmental acquis includes legislation on air quality, all aspects of water, waste management, pollution prevention, chemicals, noise and natural life. Since 2003, the year when Turkey signed legal documents to start the accession process, improvements in the implementation of the acquis have been slow and criticized on annual progress reports. Complete transposition requires a substantial amount of investment, simplification in bureaucratic procedures, public participation and most importantly, time. Alignment of many of the EU directives has been completed and the rest have been assigned to a calendar. However level of harmonization and implementation of legislation is low.