The EU transport policy and the enlargement process

This thesis mainly aims to identify opportunities and challenges for bolstering EU – Turkey cooperation on transport policy. The identification of the possible areas of cooperation is important since the accession process of Turkey has been stalled for seven years. By identifying opportunities and challenges in specific areas, the EU reform process in Turkey can be again revitalized. Focusing on transport policy, this study examines a central puzzle: why Turkey adjusts certain EU policies and technical standards while being reluctant to adopt in others. To explain the variance in the harmonization of EU policies, the Europeanization theoretical frameworks in the accession process are examined. And this study clearly shows that existing Europeanization approaches are not helpful in the Turkish case. It, then, suggests that this puzzle would be tackled by using novel theoretical framework which is borrowed from Public Policy literature developed in the United States. From this a pair of related hypotheses are developed mainly suggest that distributive policies will be more easily adopted than redistributive policies in candidate countries. To test them, two policy cases one with predominantly distributive implications and the other with mostly redistributive implications are selected and processed. The main findings of this study are as follows: first, Turkey has mostly been successful in adopting of EU transport policies with distributive impacts. Secondly, synchronization of transport policies with redistributive impacts, however, has been less promising, especially without a full membership perspective.

Even though Istanbul is Europe´s biggest city in population, it is often not recognized as such, because its global importance is below London or Paris. Istanbul is in many ways unique. It is the only city in the world lying on two continents, and it is the biggest city in Europe area wise. It is often seen as a Gateway between the West and the East. This paper will illustrate, why the increase of public transportation has not lead to a decrease of cars and why this trend will not change in the near future. It will further put Istanbul´s modal split into an international perspective and try to find out the exact reasons for Istanbul unconventional development in a European context. The paper will also implicitly and explicitly highlight the fact, that Istanbul´s transportation modes is more similar to American cities public transportation networks than to other European Cities networks.

Since the 1970s, the growing volume of global trade and changes in modes of production and consumption have stressed the importance of transportation and logistics sectors for policy-makers in the European Union. However, these policies are now shaped by questions of environmental sustainability and the excessive use of non-renewable energy resources. For this reason, in the EU policies to achieve sustainable transportation and logistics activities have been contingent upon the implementation of supranational level transportation projects and measures to reduce carbondioxide emissions. These policies and projects are of concern to Turkish policy-makers as they are connected to logistics activities, as well as transportation corridors and hubs in Turkey. It is therefore vital for Turkey to understand and in some cases adopt these projects if it seeks to become part of these new transport corridors connecting Europe to the eastern Mediterranean, Caucasus and west Asian regions. This is also important for Turkish policy-makers and officials who have greatly stressed the advantages of the geographical location of Turkey as a 'bridge' connecting Europe to Asia. This paper focuses on major issues connected with the EU's agenda regarding environmental sustainability and actions taken in the transport sector, and makes a comparison with Turkey, as well as outlining immediate concerns and recommendations for policy-makers.

European Spatial Development Perspective aims to decentralise the congestion from the centre of Europe to peripheral countries, by supporting development through urban corridors. ESDP also aims to decrease regional disparities to increase the overall competitiveness. Therefore urban corridors that connect the peripheral countries to European system have to be paid attention, to formulate policies of development in these countries, within harmony to European policies. Such a corridor in Turkey is the Trans – European Motorway (TEM) corridor. TEM, as a part of Trans European Networks (TENs) connects the two most important metropolitan centres of Turkey, Ankara and Istanbul to Europe, over an already existing route. The route also hosts many important industrial plants, universities and is one of the most heavily used inland corridor. This paper tries to analyse whether the development of the corridor is in accordance with the aims of the ESDP and other European Union spatial policies,...

Neighbourhood Policy Paper, No. 8, 2013

"The article examines the development of the EU’s transport policy within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and its extension to the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighborhoods, through the Union for the Mediterranean, the Black Sea Synergy and the Eastern Partnership. The paper argues that the splitting of the EU’s transport policies among many initiatives has not proven to be effective in achieving its goals. It underlines the fact, that while the policies themselves are substantial, they rarely reach the implementation phase. The important transport-related activities of the BSEC, UNECE and the private sector are proposed to be taken into consideration by the EU and integrated into its policies."

2009

International Symposium on Electrical Railway Transportation Systems - Symposiım Proceedings , 2017

Urbanization, which has been one of the most significant parameters of changing social structure since the beginning of 20 th Century, has also brought urban transport problems. To cope with these transport problems, traditional vehicle priority policies must be abandoned; modern policies taking individual mobility into consideration must be considered. To increase that mobility, urban rail system projects, which have long been implemented in developed countries, have become widespread in Turkey. These projects that have become the main transport system in many Metropolitan Municipalities have recently begun to be implemented in middle-sized cities. This study reveals the developing role of rail systems in transport policies as a tool for social and economic development and explores traffic policy in Erzincan as an example for middle-sized cities in Turkey.

This paper looks at the main challenges that are facing the Transport sector in the countries of S. E. Europe after enlargement. First, it looks at the challenge of setting a common Transport policy and points as priority areas the questions of: frontier crossings, road transport quotas, working hours (road transport), restructuring of railways, promotion of Rail Freight ‘Freeways’, new financing schemes through Public Private Partnerships, and other issues. Then it looks at the factors that will determine the future transport outlook of the area in both qualitative and quantitative terms and it finds that there is a web of factors and issues that will play a role, such as for example the socio-political climate and preferences, the advent of New Technologies, and the degree of development of the Trans-European Networks. The paper looks at the ‘challenges’ facing the inter-urban and urban transport separately. As regards the first it concludes that a) higher integration of the trans...

Athens: ATINER'S Conference Paper Series, No: TRA2019-2694., 2019

The creation of a United Europe continues to evolve. For the complete mosaic image called European Union (EU), the part of the Western Balkans still remains to be assembled. Last but not so simple step to attain final stage. This region is characterized as historically vulnerable, sensitive, mixed with many nationalities, similar but still different. Economically underdeveloped and vulnerable, socially unstable and politically aroused, the Western Balkans are still far from a stable European core. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the Western Balkans, adjusted for purchasing power parity, is half that of eastern European EU countries, one-third that of southern EU members and a mere quarter of the richest EU members in western Europe. The question that imposes itself is: how to overcome those differences among Balkans countries, to complete the historical vision and final mosaic puzzle of European Union? We should look for the solution historically for several decades back when creating the United Europe model. Prosperous and contemporizing Europe began its vision with the creation of a common market. And the market gives its benefits only with its physical ties i.e. transport and communication links. Transport links between the countries of the Western Balkans, with all accompanying economic, political and administrative adjustments, can contribute to realizing the single market as crucial phase of development of a United Europe. Future hopes and views are focused on finalizing Pan-European transport corridors in the Western Balkan countries, through which the trade peaks will be strengthened, overcoming the decades-long problems and conflicts in this part of Europe, and to achieve the long-awaited model for a Common European Union. But we must be realistic enough to see that transport infrastructure is not some miraculous tool with which to solve a society's development problems. It is only one part of the story. Transport must work in union with national development programmes, physical planning, investment, economic and monetary policy, custom and legal regulations. But we must acknowledge that, in many respects, the quality and success of life of Balkan‟s citizens depends on the vitality and responsibility of implementation many structural changes. One of the crucial factors is still transport infrastructure. Keywords: Western Balkan, Regional cooperation, Common market, Transport policy, Transport corridor.