Abstract
Turkey’s protracted European Union (EU) accession process has resulted in the transfer of environmental policy, primarily the water acquis. Despite a recent reversal in accession negotiations, this process is continuing and has thereby resulted in the active Europeanisation of Turkish water policy. However, the resultant pattern of Europeanisation remains poorly understood with questions arising as to whether policy transfer is leading to significant convergence with EU policy, or if a uniquely Turkish hybrid system of water governance is emerging. The paper therefore provides an analysis of transfer outcomes from the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), using eight core institutional features: identification of river basins; transboundary cooperation; environmental objectives setting; characterisation of river basins; monitoring; cost recovery and water pricing; river basin management planning; and public participation. While analysis of legal frameworks and their implementation shows many areas of emulation, some features of the WFD in Turkey are an amalgam of pre-existing water institutions, the mimetic influence of integrated water resources management (IWRM) norms, EU policy and changing national water policy priorities: what we call assembled emulation. This observation has implications for future studies on policy transfer, Europeanisation, IWRM and Turkish accession.
Highlights
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is a global paradigm for hierarchical water governance, with multiple variants visible according to national context [1]
To what extent has the Water Framework Directive (WFD) transferred to Turkey under the Europeanisation process? In considering this question, this section first goes back in time to consider the context to Turkish water policy in order to track the adoption of the Directive: a process which is still ongoing
At face value, when considering policy transfer outcomes under this Europeanisation process, it is possible to show that emulation is evident, i.e., partial convergence
Summary
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is a global paradigm for hierarchical water governance, with multiple variants visible according to national context [1]. Introduced in 2000, the WFD has fundamentally transformed water governance across Europe through compelling the transfer of EU institutions for, inter alia, river basin management and planning, public participation and economic valuation of water resources into national policy structures, thereby contributing to a wider. ‘Europeanisation’ refers to the interaction between the EU and its Member States as well as externally with non-EU states, with this typically measured through formal, rule-based institutional change and its effects in domestic political contexts resulting from European level influence [3]. Rational institutionalism explanations of Europeanisation interpret such domestic adaptation as stemming from the transfer of EU rules [3].
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