the required environmental improvements and the necessary arrangements on the
administrative, financial and legal sides for compliance with the EU Environmental
Acquis (Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2006b).
Another was Turkey’s Programme for Alignment with the EU Acquis (2007–
2013), involving the transposition of all the EU legislation, hence environmental
legislation (Chapter 27) was itself adopted in 2007.
The National Action Programme Against Desertification and the National Rural
Development Strategy were the other strategy documents adopted during this period
(Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2006a; State Planning Organization, 2006).
In parallel with this dynamism arising from being an EU Accession Country,
there were many amendments to legislation and the creation of new laws in
accordance with the EU acquis. The most important of those was the 2006
amendment to the 1983 Environment Act. Others examples are: the Metropolitan
Municipalities Act No. 5216 (2005), the Act Pertaining to Principles of Emergency
Response and Compensation for Damages in Pollution of Marine Environment by
Oil and Other Harmful Substances No. 5312 (2005), and the Misdemeanour Act
No. 5326 (2005).
14
In addition to those, regulations were also adopted on different aspects of
environmental protection, such as the control of harmful waste, air quality and and
management, waste management, marine and coastal area management, water and
soil protection, and chemicals; and also on climate change, such as the by-law on
decreasing ozone-depleting substances.
15
However, besides these achievements and improvements, there were still some
deficiencies and troublesome areas which negatively affected the development and
implementation of TEL in this period. To illustrate, though the EIA Directive had
already, to a large degree, been adopted in this period, due to the non-establishment
of fully fledged procedures (i.e. procedures for public and transboundary consultations), the challenges of implementation and enforcement continued to arise.
Because procedures for public and transboundary consultations were not fully
aligned and implemented, there are still serious concerns regarding the transboundary aspects of the EIA, around the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project, the
Turkish-Russian nuclear power plant project, and the large number of planned
hydro-power projects for which neither an EIA nor a strategic environmental
assessment (SEA) has yet been carried out.
The unratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and also the unwillingness to become a
party to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary
Context (Espoo EIA Convention)
16 and the UN Economic Commission for Europe
(UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in
14
See at: www.mevzuat.gov.tr.
15
For the list of the by-laws, decree-laws, circulars, and communiqués adopted to date on different
sectors of the environment see at: https://cygm.csb.gov.tr/tebligler-i-441.
16
For the countries which are parties to the Convention see at: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/
showDetails.aspx?objid=080000028002887c&clang=_en.
16
Z. Savaşan
administrative, financial and legal sides for compliance with the EU Environmental
Acquis (Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2006b).
Another was Turkey’s Programme for Alignment with the EU Acquis (2007–
2013), involving the transposition of all the EU legislation, hence environmental
legislation (Chapter 27) was itself adopted in 2007.
The National Action Programme Against Desertification and the National Rural
Development Strategy were the other strategy documents adopted during this period
(Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2006a; State Planning Organization, 2006).
In parallel with this dynamism arising from being an EU Accession Country,
there were many amendments to legislation and the creation of new laws in
accordance with the EU acquis. The most important of those was the 2006
amendment to the 1983 Environment Act. Others examples are: the Metropolitan
Municipalities Act No. 5216 (2005), the Act Pertaining to Principles of Emergency
Response and Compensation for Damages in Pollution of Marine Environment by
Oil and Other Harmful Substances No. 5312 (2005), and the Misdemeanour Act
No. 5326 (2005).
14
In addition to those, regulations were also adopted on different aspects of
environmental protection, such as the control of harmful waste, air quality and and
management, waste management, marine and coastal area management, water and
soil protection, and chemicals; and also on climate change, such as the by-law on
decreasing ozone-depleting substances.
15
However, besides these achievements and improvements, there were still some
deficiencies and troublesome areas which negatively affected the development and
implementation of TEL in this period. To illustrate, though the EIA Directive had
already, to a large degree, been adopted in this period, due to the non-establishment
of fully fledged procedures (i.e. procedures for public and transboundary consultations), the challenges of implementation and enforcement continued to arise.
Because procedures for public and transboundary consultations were not fully
aligned and implemented, there are still serious concerns regarding the transboundary aspects of the EIA, around the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project, the
Turkish-Russian nuclear power plant project, and the large number of planned
hydro-power projects for which neither an EIA nor a strategic environmental
assessment (SEA) has yet been carried out.
The unratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and also the unwillingness to become a
party to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary
Context (Espoo EIA Convention)
16 and the UN Economic Commission for Europe
(UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in
14
See at: www.mevzuat.gov.tr.
15
For the list of the by-laws, decree-laws, circulars, and communiqués adopted to date on different
sectors of the environment see at: https://cygm.csb.gov.tr/tebligler-i-441.
16
For the countries which are parties to the Convention see at: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/
showDetails.aspx?objid=080000028002887c&clang=_en.
16
Z. Savaşan