MARCO LOPRIORE Union Camere (İtalya Odalar Birliği) Brüksel Daimi Temsilcisi Permanent Delegate of Unioncamere (Itaiian Union of Chambers of Commerce) in Brussels The Cooperation Between Italianand Turkish Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inside the European Processes The common destiny between Italian and Turkish businesses in the European processes date back many years. The first commercial agreement is from the 2nd June 1453 just 4 days after the conquest of Constantinople on the 29th May by the Turks which marked a crucial turn in European history. This agreement was signed by Sultan Mehmetand by three Genovese Ambassadors . The continuation of commercial relation between the two countries led 400 years later to the establishment in July 1885 of the Italian "bilateral" Chamber of Commerce in Constantinople, just one year before the Italian "bilateral" Italian Chamber of Commerce were set up in Paris (May 1886) and London (October 1886). This shows how important Turkey was for Italian businessmen. It is curious to notice also the Chamber of Commerce networks in both countries show some commonalities. Both are the largest business representation in Europe and in the Mediterranean: Italy has nearly 6.000.000 businesses while Turkey has around 1.000.000 businesses. Also, in both countries, Chambers manage the company register. In Europe, this is the case only in the Netherlands where Dutch Kamers van Koophandelmanages the business register. Furthermore, both countries are also characterized by compulsory membership. This is by no mean a rule in Europe where 8 Chamber systems are public while 7 are private and not even in the Mediterranean where there are 7 public systems, 3 private and 2 mix-ed systems. However, it is within the European integration processes that the work of Italian Chambers of Commerce and Turkish ones has been the most active not only at the operational or business level but also at the institutional one. They have done together with European Chambers and within Eurochambers, the European Association of European Chambers of Com-merce. At the institutional level, Chambers have been lobbying actively in the three last European Councils of Maastricht, Amsterdam and more recently of Nice. The objective of Chambers inside this institutional process has been a constant one: a better recognition of the wider social, economic and technological value that enterprises and in particular small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have reached in the economy today. While the EU Treaties merely recognizes the role of trade unions and of employers inside the European social dialogue, the social role of enterprises is not mentioned anywhere. A parallel objective has been also the attention for a better implementation of the principle of subsidiarity within EU policies, i.e. not merely in a vertical or hierarchical manner (EU/State./Region) but also on a horizontal level in order to valorize better those actors such as Chambers of Commerce which are acting autonomously and hare functional to local business development. The commitment of Chambers towards support business development at local level was underlined in October 1999 when Italian, Turkish and European Chambers signedthe Charter of European Chambers of Commerce . The Charter stresses the commitment of Chambers to develop the network of European Chambers for the benefit of enterprises. Both public law Chamber system as private law system have ratified the Charter showing that Chamber, even if they have different legal background, are linked together by their common goal of supporting general interest of businesses. Recently, at the European Council of Nice, Chambers have supported the inclusion of the Charter of fundamental rights of the EU inside the Treaties and the recognition inside this Charter of the social and economic value that businesses have today. The current efforts of the Chambers is now directed towards the White Book on European Governance that will be publishes in June 2001 and that will also try to redraft the links between European construction and networks of businesses such as Chambers ones. On a more practical point of view, Italian and Turkish Chambers of Commerce andIndustry are also active in the more operational process of European integration, i.e. economic and monetary union, custom union, euromediterranean partnership, etc. These activities of Chambers in this field have largely benefited from the constant support givenby the European Commission through its different programmes such as the MEDA. Also, Italian and Turkish Chambers are cooperated together in some European projectpromoted by Eurochambres to construct the contents of the European Chambers of Commerce network. It is impossible to mention all of them but the most important are the Academy in order to train Turkish Chamber executives, the European Economic Survey to highlight expectations of businessmen on economic trends, Chamberpass to create an Internet based network for businesses to benefit from services of Chambers, etc. As regards business cooperation, it is important to mention the work done by Mondimpresa, a company partly owned by Italian Chambers, together with IKV and Turkish Chambers who are working on "Three EU-Turkey Business Partnerships 1998-2001" to help businesses meet and set up joint venture agreements. The first event took place in November 1999 where 200 companies (not only European and Turkish) in the sector of wood and wood machinery took part. The next event will take place in 25-26th June 2001 in Turkey in the new technologies and the electronic sector, and in the construction sector. Also, Turkish companies have participated in the last XXIII edition of the Europartenariat Italia Sud that took place in Palermo on 3-4 December 2000. They have met with 1700European companies of which 700 Italian ones. In the frame of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, both Chambers network are also contributing to building the free trade area in the Mediterranean before 2010. Italian and Turkish Chambers have cooperated in promoting quality as a factor of competitiveness of Euro Med SME in a EUMED Workshop that took place in Vieste (Puglia) in April 1999. Final reflections: The work that Italian and Turkish Chambers have done to establish, with the support of the European Commission, a true European Chamber network is a very important one not only for the Chambers and businesses but for European integration. It is indeed important to stress that the approach followed by both Chambers systems in Brussels has not been one of being present in order only to receive from Europe and to take back to our their own respective countries -this is important but it is not all. The approach followed has also been one of contributing to the European process by bringing experiencesand best practices from Turkey and Italy that can be shared with other Chamber systems and with a wider audience such as the sensitivity to the problems of SMEs, to Mediterranean issues, to the relation between enterprises and institutions, etc. This specific contribution to the European construction is all the more necessary in the enlargement process. MARCO LOPRIORE: "AVRUPA SÜRECİ İÇİNDE İTALYAN VE TÜRK TİCARET VE SANAYİ ODALARI İŞBİRLİĞİ" Avrupa süreci içinde İtalyan ve Türk iş çevrelerinin kader ortaklığı çok eskilere dayanır. İki ülke arasındaki ilk ticaret anlaşmasının altında Fatih Sultan Mehmet ile üç Cenovaelçisinin imzası vardır. İki ülke arasındaki ticari ilişkiler bundan sonra da sürmüş ve 1885'de İstanbul'da İtalyan Ticaret Odası kurulmuştur. İki ülkenin Ticaret Odası yapıları benzerlikler göstermektedir. Her iki ülke de Avrupa ve Akdeniz'de en büyük temsil gücüne sahiptir. Şirket tescillerine bu kurumlar bakar. Avrupa entegrasyonu sürecinde İtalyan ve Türk Ticaret Odaları yasama anlamında da etkin rol oynamaktadırlar. Odalar Maastricht, Amsterdam ve Nice'de gerçekleşen son Avrupa Konseyi toplantılarında şirketlerin ve özellikle KOBİ'lerin sosyal, ekonomik ve teknolojik değerlerinin daha yaygın şekilde tanınması için çaba göstermişlerdir. Bu odaların amaçlarından biri de AB politikalarında yer alan teşvik ilkesinin daha iyi uygulanmasıdır. Ticaret odalarının şu andaki çalışmaları Haziran 2001'de çıkacak olan Beyaz Kitap üzerinde yoğunlaşmaktadır. İtalyan ve Türk Ticaret Odaları'nın Avrupa Komisyonu'nun desteğiyle yaptıkları çalışmalar, sadece şirketler için değil, Avrupa entegrasyon süreci için debüyük önem taşımaktadır.