Local administrations i̇n Turkey's European Union reforms process

The adventure of the European Union of the Republic of Turkey has started for more than a half century ago. Although in this adventure, relations with the European Union has been interrupted sometimes because of military interventions and sometimes because of economic and political instability, a complete turn off has never been happened before. Every government which is in power has made efforts towards the accession of the Union membership and contributed to the work of reform for the purpose of full membership of the Union. After years of 2000 these efforts have accelerated. The requested conditions, which Union demanded from Turkey, have began to enact step by step with the reform package. The reforms have great influence on the society as a result of this, the local autorities also have been included in these reforms. For many years, local autorities haven't got profound and fundamental changes, so they haven't been able to accomodate the European. Especially, the excessive centralization resulted in reduction of functions of local autorities, increase the bureaucratic process, being unable to determine of the local needs and caused undeveloped elements such as transparency and democraticness. The European Union adopted much more comtemporary and more democratic rules in local autorities with the aggrements and accepted principles. To join the European Union, Turkey has made intensive reforms and has been giving one of the most important tests in the field of local autorities. Key Words: Local Autorities, European Union, Turkey, Decentralization