Treatment plants, recycling, environmentally friendly production plants for industry - substantial investments are required in the environmental sector before Turkey can be considered ready for EU membership. Only five weeks after negotiations between Turkey and the EU started, the Government of Turkey took an important step in preparing for the negotiations on the environment chapter of the EU acquis.
The Environmental Heavy-Cost Investment Planning (EHCIP) Project for Turkey, which has helped prepare the ground for the negotiations ahead, has come to a close. An event which was marked by a press conference at the Dedeman Hotel in Ankara on 8 November.
The project has produced so-called directive-specific investment plans for the twenty most costly environmental directives. These plans illustrate the cost, the timing, the financing, and the necessary transition periods for the implementation of EU directives. These plans will now be discussed in a high-level government steering committee with the aim to prepare a government negotiation strategy before April 2006.
"Thanks to the fact that some people showed foresight three years ago and planned this technical assistance project, the Government of Turkey now has a very good plan as to how the needed investments in the environment sector can be prioritised and financed," said Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey, Mr. Hansjörg Kretschmer, who spoke at the reception.
Mr. Kretschmer added that this project is the most successful in the history of the EU Delegation in Turkey and urged the Government to use the project results for the benefits of the people of Turkey. The Undersecretary for Environment and Forest, Mr. Hasan Zuhuri Sarikaya emphasised the importance of making the needed investments in environmental infrastructure. He noted that Turkey needs to spend more than 65 billion euro over the next 20 years and that 50 billion hereof will have to be in the public sector.
"This project will contribute to making the daily life cleaner and better for a large number of people in Turkey, and it will help the nation to get maximum benefits from its EU negotiations," says the project manager for the EHCIP project, Mr. Michael Jacobsen, COWI. In 2003, an international consortium lead by COWI and operating under the name of ENVEST Planners was appointed to help the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forest develop a comprehensive investment plan for the country's environmental sector. The project was financed by the EU, which entered into agreement with Turkey in 2002 to hasten the pace of preparations for EU accession. By John Jørgensen, jhj@cowi.com Published: 23.11.2005