THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IPPC DIRECTIVE TO SMEs IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN TURKEY

The Commission’s Directive 96/61/EC on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) is the most important initiative of European Commission with an objective to “protection the environment as a whole” based on the integrated permitting system. The implementation of the IPPC through the European Union is at very early stage and it has been varying through the Members. Among the sectors covered by the Directive, textile sector mostly dominated by SMEs requires particular attention and support. Considerable challenge exists for the sector in terms of implementation, enforcement, monitoring, and compliance of the Directive due to unique features of SMEs. As a candidate country in Turkey the transposition process of the IPPC into the national legislation is also in very early stage. SME-dominant textile industry in Turkey faces challenges not only because of general problems but also because of unstable economic condition in the country and low awareness to environmental issues. Therefore, there are not environmental activities, which are widespread, are aiming at minimizing adverse environmental effects of SMEs’ activities. Nevertheless, this attitude has been changing and initiatives to protect environment have been getting impetus in line with the EU membership process. However this situation is still the major threat for an effective and efficient implementation of the IPPC on textile SMEs that is under the scope. The future problems which might be appear during implementation of the IPPC in Turkey is analyzed in this thesis under the topics; general challenges because of improper segments of the Directive also experienced by other member states, challenges emerged owing to failures in environmental policy and legal development, administrative capacity, licensing procedure, enforcement and monitoring in Turkey, and sector specific challenges mostly because of SMEoriented feature of textile industry. In line with the investigation of the possible challenges and opportunities, the policy analysis is done by seeking the answers of the questions to find out if the IPPC will be applicable for the Turkish textile sector consisting medium, small and micro sized installations which are under the scope of the Directive because of high production rate despite their small scale. Moreover If there is a need for adjustments to the IPPC at national level regarding the threshold values and other related issues for Turkish textile sector and some recommendations are given to facilitate a more effective and efficient implementation of the IPPC in general as well as specific to the sector. The Implementation of the IPPC Directive to SMEs in Textile Industry in Turkey 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables........................................................................................................................5 List of Figures..........................................................................................................................5