European Union regional policy and adaptation of Turkey

The level of prosperity to be achieved by eliminating regional differences which is one part of the EU's founding principle has remained important since the Rome Treaty of 1957. The regional policy, which is applied to the member countries and the candidate countries in order to reduce the differences between the regions of the countries and within the regions themselves, is supported by various financial resources. The social cohesion of the member countries and candidate countries has been tried to be provided. Common policies which are important part of European integration as well as the EU regional policy have today focused on increasing the competitivenes of regions, while reducing the problems caused by interregional differences. Efforts of adaptation of Turkey with the EU have been very important for Turkey since the beginning of their relations. Implementations under Regional Policy and institutional arrangements within the scope of adaptation with the EU accelerated the discovery of local dynamics in Turkey and the development of Turkey in many fields. The regional policy implemented by Turkey's centralized management system were arranged throughout the process in order to comply with EU strategies. As a result of the studies carried out so far, it has become clear that local participation and many factors such as the importance of programming according to the characteristics of the regions are important in terms of obtaining healty outcomes from plans, but it cannot yet be reached to the desired level with the works done within the scope of the Regional Policy that is applied to the day to day. Turkey's progress in this regard has been limited due to various reasons.