Turkish Public Administration’s Institutional Capacity in the Membership Process to the European Union
Uğur Sadioğlu, Yasemin Çifci, Emre Ezin, Betül DinçThe development of Turkey’s administration capacity necessary for the orientation, monitoring and coordination of the preparatory work for its membership to the European Union has reached an important level. For the foreseeable future, the transformation and the administration level of the relevant body is directly affected by the relations between Turkey and the EU, and, in turn, this affects the relations between them. The body was first established as the General Secretary for EU Affairs under the Prime Ministry. Later, it became an independent body and was named the Ministry for EU Affairs. More recently , it started functioning under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Directorate for EU Affairs . In case of Turkey becoming a member of the EU, the directorate for EU Affairs will also be in charge of the coordination of the postmembership process. Not only has the Directorate’s place within the administrative structure changed after the passage to the presidential system but its internal structure has also changed extensively. Monitoring the institutional development of the directorate in recent history and the relevant organization in other ministries will shed light on the administrative capacity in the membership process. In addition, positive developments in the relations between Turkey and the EU will allow us to reinterpret the administrative position of the Directorate. This study, based on an institutionalist approach, reveals the institutional capacity of the Directorate for EU Affairs and of other relevant public administration by analyzing the relevant legislation and the activity reports of the body. Although the Directorate has accumulated the necessary administrative experience stemming from a long period of candidacy and membership negotiations, its administrative motivation has decreased in the last few years due to the stagnation observed in the relations between the parties.
Avrupa Birliği’ne Üyelik Sürecinde Türk Kamu Yönetiminin Kurumsal Kapasitesi
Uğur Sadioğlu, Yasemin Çifci, Emre Ezin, Betül DinçTürkiye’nin Avrupa Birliği’ne üyelik sürecinde hazırlık çalışmalarının yönlendirilmesi, izlenmesi ve koordinasyonu için gerekli olan yönetim kapasitesinin gelişimi önemli bir düzeye ulaşmıştır. Sorumlu kuruluşun dönüşümü ve yakın gelecekte konumlanacağı yönetim düzeyi Türkiye-Avrupa Birliği ilişkilerinden doğrudan etkilenmekte ve bu ilişkilere etki etmektedir. İlk olarak Başbakanlığa bağlı Avrupa Birliği Genel Sekreterliği, ikinci olarak müstakil Avrupa Birliği Bakanlığı ve son olarak Dışişleri Bakanlığına bağlı Avrupa Birliği Başkanlığı olan teşkilatın görevi aynı kapsamda devam etmektedir. Avrupa Birliği Başkanlığı muhtemel üyelik sonrası çalışmaların koordinasyonundan da sorumludur. Cumhurbaşkanlığı hükümet sisteminde idari yapıdaki yeri değişen Başkanlığın kendi yapısı da önemli bir değişim geçirmiştir. Başkanlığın yakın tarihteki kurumsal gelişiminin ve diğer bakanlıklardaki ilgili teşkilatlanmanın izlenmesi gelecekte üyelik sürecinin yönetsel kapasitesine ilişkin çıkarımlar yapmaya imkân vermektedir. Bununla birlikte ilişkilerdeki olumlu yöndeki gelişmeler Başkanlığın idari konumunu yeniden yorumlaya imkân verebilir. Bu çalışmada, kurumsalcı yaklaşım temel alınarak, ilgili mevzuat incelenerek ve kuruluşun faaliyet raporları analiz edilerek Avrupa Birliği Başkanlığı’nın ve ilgili diğer kamu yönetiminin kurumsal kapasitesi ortaya konulmuştur. Türkiye’nin uzun adaylık ve üyelik müzakereleri sürecinde yeterli yönetsel birikimi sağlamasına rağmen, son yıllarda ilişkilerde gözlenen durgunluk ve tıkanma ile yönetsel motivasyonu azalmaktadır.
The relations between Turkey and the European Union (EU) have been on the agenda for the last fifty years with the latter period seeing cooling, occlusion and stagnation processes. There are several reasons why the relations between Turkey and the EU are not on the agenda anymore. These reasons include the process of membership, the political and socio-economic situation of Turkey, the constitutional status quo, and the perspectives of member states towards a Turkish membership. As a result of these different factors, the organization in charge of the EU has changed over time. Thus, the administrative experience has increased extensively by means of the steps taken in order to enlarge the Turkish public administration capacity.
With the introduction of the Customs Union and the abolishment of obstacles for external trade, the European Economic Community (EEC) was established in 1958. This signals that the foundations of the EU are based on economic parameters. Today however, the EU is embracing political, administrative and legal aspects. The EU process necessitates a multi-factored approach which takes the different agents involved during and after the membership process into consideration.
In this study, the process between the establishment of the European Union General Secretary on 4 July 2000 and the establishment of the EU Directorate on 15 July 2018 with a Presidential decree has been analyzed. The purpose of this study is to interpret the near future of the Turkey-EU relations by analyzing the changes experienced in the near past. This study is based on two assumptions. First, the evolution of the Turkish institutions in charge of the EU membership process is closely linked to political preferences. Second, as a consequence of the Turkey-EU relations, the Turkish public administration has significantly changed. Within the framework of this study, these two assumptions are accepted as valid both within national and global contexts. As the EU does not stipulate any organizational model for candidate and member states, it is not possible to make generalizations concerning these countries’ changes in their organizational capacity.
The European Union General Secretary (ABGS) was founded on 4 July 2000 after the Helsinki Summit in 1999, during which the Turkish candidacy was approved. In 2011, the Ministry of the European Union was established as an autonomous structure. The Ministry was an innovative structure not only because it was autonomous but also because it was in charge of the coordination of services. On 16 April 2017, with constitutional amendments, Turkey entered a new era in terms of politics and administration. In line with these amendments, the status of the organization in charge of the EU, its position within the administrative system, its organizational structure, and finally, its administrative capacity have changed.
As a consequence of constitutional amendments, an EU Directorate was established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 15 July 2018. The directorate is responsible for the preparations for EU membership and will coordinate the process after the Turkish accession to the EU. Whether a directorate within a ministry will be sufficient to manage the entire process in case of membership is a debated issue. It has also been expressed that the directorate may be taken under the umbrella of the Presidency in order to strengthen its coordination role. However, these are just assumptions. Moreover, it is not possible to talk about homogenization in terms of the membership process of other candidate and member countries. Even though the politics, institutional infrastructure, and policies of candidate and member states undergo a significant change, it is not possible to make generalizations regarding the content and processes of these changes. On the one hand, every country has its own administrative traditions, priorities, and political constituents which influence their EU process. On the other hand, they are influenced by the processes experienced in other member states. Turkey is not just taking one country as a model in order to develop its administrative capacity regarding the EU process. The relations are mostly based on bilateral cooperation programs.
This study seeks to describe the current situation of the capacity of public administration in Turkey, where an important transformation has been experienced. Moreover, the study aims to predict whether any changes will occur in the EU Directorate’s role, status, organization, and capacity in case of membership, and if so, to describe what these changes may be. For this purpose, this study includes both legislation and activity reports, as well as face-to face interviews which were conducted with the EU directorate.
