Within Env.net, a meeting called ‘EU and Turkey’s Environmental Concerns: Civil Society watches the EU Negotiating Process’ was organized on 4 September 2014 in Ankara. 32 participants from 14 different cities, including different NGO representatives, academicians and experts attended the meeting.

In the morning session of the meeting, 3 speakers were present to outline the current situation in Turkey’s EU Negotiations and its progress under Chapter 27. Assistant Professor Semra Cerit Mazlum from Marmara University was the moderator of the panel. Dr. Nuran Talu from Küresel Denge Derneği presented the process from both governmental and civil society perspectives, outlining possible intervention points for CSOs. Assistant Professor Barış Gençer Baykan presented the historical perspective of the approximation process following the Progress Reports published since 1998. Alper Acar, Environment/Climate Change Sector Manager from the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey presented the process from EU perspective.

Afternoon session was facilitated by Ayça Bulut Bican from TACSO Turkey. Participants were invited to draw the environmental inclination map of Turkey. After this mapping process, participants highlighted priority areas and then in small groups worked on how to present these areas to EU institutions.

Meeting ended with the presentations of the groups. Priority concerns of the participants were the income imbalance in the country resulting in ecologically destructive investments, policies not in favor of smallholder agriculture, transfer of dirty technologies, lack of public participation in environmental policy making, lack of standards and set targets.