Cyprus: The 56-member Cyprus House of Representatives voted unanimously yesterday to approve the accession of the Mediterranean island to the European Union, writes Michael Jansen, Nicosia
While the other nine candidate countries held national plebiscites to ratify EU membership, Cyprus has no provision in its constitution for a referendum. The 10 new members are set to join the EU in May 2004.
In April, the internationally recognised Greek-majority Cyprus republic signed the EU accession treaty on behalf of the entire island, but EU laws and benefits will not be extended to the Turkish Cypriot sector, occupied by Turkey in 1974. The north will only join when reunification has been achieved. The EU and the international community had hoped the two sides would be reunited under a federation plan put forward by UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.
But the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, backed by the Turkish military, rejected this proposal.
Mr Denktash demands international recognition for his breakaway state and a settlement based on a loose confederation between two independent states. The EU and the UN call for a single state.
Ankara has been repeatedly warned by the EU Commissioner for Expansion, Mr Gunther Verheugen, that continued rejection of the UN proposal will obstruct its own bid for EU membership.
The EU is due to fix a date in December 2004 for Turkey's accession talks to begin, but Cyprus and Greece could veto this if progress towards reunification is not achieved by then.
As an alternative to the Annan plan, Mr Denktash called for a return to confidence-building measures tabled by the former UN Secretary General, Mr Butros Butros Ghali, in 1992.
Mr Denktash proposed the reopening of Nicosia international airport so it could serve both communities and the resettlement of 40,000 of the 180,000 Greek Cypriot refugees in the abandoned Varosha suburb of Famagusta. While the Greek Cypriot side accepted Mr Ghali's proposals, Mr Denktash rejected them.
Today is the 29th anniversary of the attempted coup engineered by the military junta in Athens against then President Makarios that served as a pretext for Turkey to invade north Cyprus five days later.