Dynamics of Regionalisation and the Impact of the EU: Comparing Regional Reforms in Romania and Turkey

Abstract

This article examines the institutional and governance effects of regional policy reforms in Romania and Turkey during their respective periods as EU candidate countries. First, the article aims to disentangle the relative impact of EU conditionality in the area of regional policy in two candidate countries from different enlargement rounds. Second, it aims to investigate the outcomes of regional reforms while identifying the factors facilitating these reforms. The findings suggest that regional reform outcomes in Romania and Turkey show striking similarities, despite differences in the credibility of EU conditionality. Therefore, it argues that the constellations of domestic political actors and the existing domestic institutional structures matter more than EU conditionality in explaining the similarity in reform outcomes.