Impact of europeanization of Turkish energy policies on Turkey-EU relations

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, Turkey

Approval Date: 2010

Student: SENEM GÜLER

Supervisor: ÖZGEHAN ŞENYUVA

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of Europeanization of Turkish energy policies on Turkey-EU relations. In order to do so, the thesis focuses mainly on Europeanization as a concept and Europeanization of foreign policy as important features in explaining the changes in the Turkish energy policies. While doing so, first this study tries to explore the European Union energy policies and make an overview of the EU energy production and consumption situation within the energy distribution of the world. Second, the study looks through the Turkish energy policy framework and provides a portrait of Turkey as a key player between energy producer and consumer countries. Also, the relation of Turkish energy policy and EU energy policy are evaluated with respect to the questions: “to what extent Turkish energy policies are Europeanized? And what are the possible impacts of Turkish energy policies and their Europeanization of Turkey’s quest for the membership?” For the first question Europeanization is discussed mainly by Radaelli’s definition. The review of the literature and the interviews show that Turkey has contributed much to its Europeanization process regarding the energy policies, and Turkish energy policy making reveal distinctive characteristics of Europeanization. However, for the second question, studies exhibit that there is a discrepancy of ideas among scholars and it is important to counterbalance them properly.