Questions raised over SBA status in EU accession process

A SPECIAL committee has been set at the Foreign Ministry to look into the status of the British bases in Cyprus’ EU accession.

Reports surfaced yesterday that the sovereign status of the bases would be incompatible with EU membership.

According to Phileleftheros, Brussels had raised the issue with Nicosia.

The newspaper said problems would arise, among other issues, over the status of Cypriots living on the bases.

Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told his daily briefing yesterday that the bases, which cover 99 square miles, had been excluded from Britain’s EU accession treaty, even though they remained sovereign British territories.

A written statement issued later by the spokesman’s office said the status of the British bases had not been tabled at any meetings with EU officials, but had been brought up in a working context.

"The Foreign Ministry has set up a special team to study the issue and also the rights of citizens of the Cyprus Republic who live in the bases areas," the statement said.

The EU ambassador’s office declined to comment on the issue yesterday but EU watchers told the Cyprus Mail they thought it a strange issue for the EU to bring up.

They said Britain’s EU membership agreement specifically stated it did not apply to the two military bases in Cyprus.

This was echoed by British High Commission spokesman Peter Boxer, who said there was no question of the bases’ status turning into a political issue, as there was no such thing as an "SBA nationality".

But he did admit that there might be "a handful" of technical problems that might need to be "ironed out" as Cyprus’ accession approached.

"We will need to make sure that the existence of the bases will not cause any problems for Cyprus’s accession," Boxer said.

He cited the example of farmers cultivating land within the bases and how their activities would conform to the EU’s common agricultural policy.

"These are minor technical issues and nothing that can’t be ironed out," Boxer said.

The 1960 Treaty of Establishment provides that the laws of the sovereign territories should mirror those of the Republic of Cyprus.

This would mean that, like Cyprus, the bases would have to harmonise their legislation in line with the acquis communautaire.

"The bases mirrors its laws as closely as possible to those of the Republic for practical reasons," Boxer said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.