The Symposium on the Harmonization of Turkish Company Law with EU Company Law was held on February 26, 2024 at Sheraton Grand Istanbul Ataşehir under the leadership of our University Faculty of Law. With the symposium, an important step was taken within the scope of the TUBITAK 3005 project, which is carried out with the contributions of academics from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Kocaeli University and Anadolu University under the leadership of Prof. Şükrü Yıldız, a faculty member at the Faculty of Law.
The symposium, where the most up-to-date issues on corporate law were discussed, brought together important names from the world of academia and public institutions and organizations. The symposium was also attended by ministry representatives from the Ministry of Trade and the European Union Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An online videoconference was organized for the ministry representatives who could not attend the meeting.
In his welcoming speech, Prof. Şükrü Yıldız, the head of the Department of Commercial Law at Ibn Haldun University and also the project coordinator, stated that the main goal of the project is to harmonize the company law legislation of our country with the EU legislation and underlined that the focus of the symposium was on the progress reports on Chapter 6 and the symposium topics consisted of the issues that were criticized in the 2023 Turkey Report.
Prof. Ömer Çınar, Dean of the Faculty of Law of our University, in his welcoming speech after Prof. Yıldız, stated that as the Faculty of Law, they aim to carry out academic studies by focusing more on certain areas, and that one of these areas is corporate law, and that this project is an extremely valuable work in terms of the goals of the faculty.
In his welcoming remarks, Rector Prof. Atilla Arkan mentioned that the University realizes many projects every year and the importance of the European Union Legal Acquis. In his speech, Prof. Arkan emphasized the necessity of keeping the vision of a just world based on law alive despite all the negative developments in the name of humanity and justice that we witness especially in the Palestinian issue, and mentioned that this work carried out by the Faculty of Law is important in terms of realizing this vision on behalf of nations that want justice, even if the USA and Europe do not embrace it.
Arkan expressed his thanks on behalf of our university to the project team who rolled up their sleeves and did not hesitate to take responsibility in order to reveal the point our country has already reached, the current deficiencies despite the positive statements in the progress reports and the changes that need to be made at the point of harmonization with the EU acquis, and stated that the project is of great importance in order to develop a fairer commercial law for ourselves.
Stating that the findings and solution proposals to be put forward as a result of the study can only be possible by discussing the issue in such an environment, Arkan concluded his speech by adding that the symposium is in accordance with the principle of fairness.
In the symposium, which consisted of 4 sessions in total, the most current issues raised within the scope of the progress reports published by the EU Commission every year and evaluating the stage reached in the negotiation processes were discussed by academicians who are experts on the subject.
