6th European Urban and Regional Studies Conference

Turkey and Turkish governance have entered a critical period and path after the EU Summit on 17th December 2004, in which European Council decided on the basis of a report and recommendation from the Commission that Turkey fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria and the EU will open accession negotiations with Turkey without delay. It is not to exaggerate to say that the decision made on 3rd October 2005 about the opening of the negotiations between Turkey and the EU has and will have a strong impact on the position and the role of the EU and Turkey in the 21st century, and the style of the administrative reform in Turkey. In fact, this process has already stimulated the motives of reform in Turkey. However the question about Turkey’s readiness and fitness for the EU in terms of its governance still remains to be unanswered. The central perspective to this question should consider a set of interrelated concepts that triggering each other: Europeanization, European Administrative Space and Multi-Level Governance- which has been either disregarded or insufficiently mentioned particularly in the literature on Turkish Governance and Turkey and the EU relations. Despite the continuing discussion, these concepts are regarded as the bas