Local Administration Reform Programme in Turkey

As a supranational organization, the member states of which have transferred some of their sovereign powers in a number of policy areas (due to the need of common or joint policies and legislation to better deal with such matters), the European Union has not been entrusted by its member states with the responsibility of defining a common policy, legislation or institutional framework in what concerns the organization and functioning of their respective national government and public administration systems.

Therefore, there are no legal instruments (regulations, directives, decisions, etc.) of the European Union directly aimed at the strengthening of local self-government or the reform of the local administration in the member states. In fact, in the process of accession to the EU of a candidate country, there is no "negotiation chapter" directly addressing this particular policy (local administration reform).

However, the existence of an effective, efficient and democratic local government system - consisting of a number of elected local authorities, representing their respective local communities, and entrusted with a number of public tasks and responsibilities to be managed by them, under conditions of autonomy vis a vis the central government and administration and which are directly responsible for the management of a sufficient amount of the country's public resources (financial and human) - is one of the key indicators to be taken into account when assessing the degree of compliance of a candidate country with the so-called "political criteria" for EU accession (as defined by the European Council in a number of occasions).

The benchmark used by the European Union to assess and measure compliance of any candidate country with the political criteria related to local self-government is basically the set of principles and standards laid down in the Council of Europe's Charter of Local Self-government, which not only constitutes the text of reference for CoE's work, but is also fully assumed by the EU as an implicit part of its common acquis.

In addition to the rules and principles of the Charter, there are some legal and institutional requirements to be observed by EU member states' administrative systems, including local administrations (for instance, in what concerns financial control systems; or the opening up of public employment to non-nationals from other EU countries); but these very specific provisions do not impose nor recommend a particular level of administrative decentralization or a specific model of local administration.

Nevertheless, and given that in most EU countries, the implementation of EU common policies and legislation rests to a certain extent upon the action of sub-national authorities (local or regional), the Treaty of Maastricht (in force since 1992) introduced a new "consultative" body in the institutional structure of the European Union: the "Committee of Regions".

The Committee of Regions (CoR), which commenced work in 1994, is the political assembly that provides local and regional authorities with a voice in the decision-making process of the European Union. Information about the role, composition, activities and documents produced by the CoR can be found at its multi-lingual website: http://www.cor.europa.eu

Apart from providing local and regional authorities in the EU member states with an institutional voice in the decision-making process, the EU supports the development of local and regional authorities and their active involvement in the implementation of EU policies and more broadly, in the construction of the European Union project in a number of ways.

Many of the EU-funded programmes and initiatives managed by the European Commission, both in the area of internal policy (EU member states) as well as in the area of external affairs (enlargement - for candidate or pre-candidate countries, external relations with third countries including new neighborhood policy and development cooperation) are open to the direct participation of the local and regional authorities both in EU member states and beneficiary countries (of external policy instruments), usually under the requirement of establishing partnerships or temporary associations for the implementation of the relevant projects.

In the case of Turkey (an EU candidate country), local authorities are eligible to apply for EC-funding or otherwise to receive support and assistance for their own projects and capacity-building activities from a number of different sources:

Programmes/projects aimed at supporting the approximation of legislation to EU acquis and the development of the institutional and administrative structures and capacities needed for the effective and efficient implementation of the new EU-aligned legislation, provided that, in accordance with Turkish internal institutional arrangements, local authorities are responsible for some aspects or tasks in the relevant fields.
Programmes/projects aimed at promoting the dialogue between civil society organizations in Turkey and the EU. Local authorities (municipalities in particular) are considered and treated in this respect as public organizations representing local communities.
Programmes and projects aimed at supporting the economic and social development of the less-developed provinces and regions in Turkey, the cooperation between local authorities in the development of border areas (particularly with Greece and Bulgaria), the development of the country's human resources, or the development of rural areas.
Eventually, programmes originally set up for EU member states to which the Turkish Republic has been invited and has decided to participate.

Information about EU-funding opportunities for projects formulated by or involving local authorities can be obtained from the web-sites of the Secretariat General for EU Affairs (http://www.abgs.gov.tr) and the Central Finance and Contracts Unit (http://www.cfcu.gov.tr); as well as from the website of the EC Delegation to Turkey (http://www.avrupa.info.tr/DelegasyonPortal.html).