EUROPEANIZATION OF CHILD RIGHTS IN ROMANIA: A TEMPLATE FOR FUTURE ENLARGEMENTS?

Authors : Menekşe TOKYAY ÜNLÜHİSARCIKLI

Pages : 37-63

Doi:10.29228/mjes.440

View : 130 | Download : 32

Publication Date : 2023-06-25

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article aims to investigate the role and impact of the European Union insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(EU); by deeply analyzing the situation of Romania in the period between early 1990s to 2007, the date of its accession to the EU. The involvement of the EU in this country’s domestic transformation process was significant considering the place that was accorded to child rights due to the dire situation children faced under the communist regime. Child rights did not rank as a critical factor of harmonization with the EU acquis until the Romanian accession process. The article is based on a comprehensive literature review about Romania on child rights at the European and international levels. The argument of this article is that, following Romanian accession template, political conditionality in the child rights area could have become a referential for future accession processes to the EU, especially for Turkey, through pre-accession mechanisms such as funding, twinning programmes, field studies, etc. but that this did not happen. The article concludes that for the EU to generate domestic change in Turkey’s child rights area under the candidacy period, it is a must that two negotiation chapters namely, Chapter 19, Social Policy and Employment and Chapter 23, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, are opened as they are directly linked with the improvement of child protection.
Keywords : Çocuk hakları, Avrupalılaşma, dönüşüm, koşulluluk