Regional policy of European Union and cohesion of Turkey with EU legislation

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to identify where Turkey stands in the context of the EU's regional policy and which challenges exist on the road to alignment with EU's regional policy and in fulfilling the requirements for candidate countries. Reducing the regional socio-economic gaps between the regions in Turkey is a key issue area in Turkey's accession process to EU. However, socioeconomic measures are not sufficient alone to provide this harmonization and promote regional development because Turkey's administrative structure has been highly centralized system of government, which appears as a challenging factor against the rapid and effective implementation of the regional policies at the local level.