With only 100 days until Cyprus becomes part of Europe, most people do not know how their lives will change
By Stefanos Evripidou
WITH ONLY 100 days until EU accession, most people in Cyprus hardly have a grasp of the real effects, good or bad, that membership will bring, experts warned yesterday.
While the civil service is working hard to complete the country’s obligations to the EU, its citizens remain uninformed and unsure about the biggest date in the Republic’s history since its creation.
From May 1 2004, Europe will open its doors to Cypriot businesses and citizens. Students may enter European universities paying local fees; goods, capital, labour and people in general will no longer be impeded by internal boundaries. But at the same time, petrol, electricity, water and sugar prices are rising.
Director of Research at the European Institute Neophytos Chrysochos warns that the government needed to highlight both the negative and positive impacts. “Citizens should also be informed of the medium-term benefits in terms of access to EU programmes and funds, social benefits like the increase in consumer rights and the advantages of fair competition.”
“Citizens don’t want to hear the niceties of accession anymore. They want to hear the pros and cons so they can reap the benefits and avoid the negative effects,” he added.
Lack of real information has already led to a slump in the EU’s popularity on the island. “The percentage of Cypriots supporting EU membership has dropped by 13 per cent, according to the latest Euro barometer, from around 85 to 72 per cent,” said Chrysochos.
“These figures highlight a serious need to explain the realities of what is happening to citizens. Politicians created high expectations of what is happening in the EU in the last 14 years. Now they must inform citizens in real terms what’s going on,” he said.
Another expert said if the government doesn’t act fast to increase public awareness, the benefits offered by EU membership will also be lost as support for the union will drop when citizens begin to feel the brunt of Cyprus’ obligations.
“There is a lot to be done in terms of informing citizens what it means to be in the EU and informing interested parties about the capacity of people to receive EU funds,” said Nicholas Karides, a partner in Ampersand Communications.
To secure as many EU funds as possible, from agricultural to structural funds, the level of information made available to citizens is imperative, he warned.
Karides highlighted the example of Austria, which joined the EU in 1995 with 66 per cent of support from the people, but nine months into accession the figure dropped by around 30 per cent.
CYPRUS was the only acceding country not to call a referendum on EU accession due to cross-party support. This was a mistake, according to Karides: “In the sense that the lack of a full blown ‘YES’ campaign allowed the public to remain uninformed and now difficulties are arising in some sectors.”
“Public opinion is very easily swayed in either direction, so in order to sustain pro-European support you need to inform them adequately and correctly,” he added.
The upcoming European parliamentary elections in June are even more reason for Cypriots to get clued up on their new family.
“Cypriots will have to make solid choices on important EU issues. In order to make the right choices, they have to be informed. It’s no longer a local political agenda, but a much wider agenda,” said Karides.
The President of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE), Vasilis Rologis, drove the point home that information is the key.
“Now is the time for everybody from school children and up to visit our local chambers to seek expert advice on sectors most closely connected to their lives,” he said.
“Information is number one. Many small and medium-sized enterprises are in danger of losing their businesses because they are not prepared. It’s time to make a last effort,” added Rologis.
However, the KEVE president remained optimistic about the overall effects of accession. “The acquis (EU body of laws) will improve conditions of living, eating, the environment and the general quality of life. Otherwise, in certain sectors of society we would have needed another five more years to reach that level.”
He urged citizens to take advantage of the free expert advise available at the five information centres set up in the main towns.
“With knowledge, one can take advantage of accession. But most people have just realised now that May is coming. It’s the last-minute culture of Cyprus,” he said.
Cyprus Coordinator for EU Harmonisation, Takis Hadjidemetriou, reassured the Cyprus Mail yesterday that Cyprus was on top of things still to be done before accession.
“We know the work that has to be done and we are concentrating on it,” he said. The two areas singled out by the European Commission, the Agriculture Paying Agency and Maritime obligations, are being seen to, according to the coordinator.
The Paying Agency, which will channel around 70 million euros of EU funds to the agriculture sector, should be set up by the February 28 deadline. If not, the government is obligated to pay that money from its own coffers, said Hadjidemetriou. “So, it’s in the government’s interest to finish on time. Bare in mind, it should have been finished a year ago.”
The maritime provisions have been met with Cyprus now inspecting 27 per cent of ships approaching the island, compared to the four per cent previously inspected. The EU requirement is 25 per cent.
So, Cyprus seems to have escaped the prospect of the imposition of safeguard clauses by the Commission due to its hard work in the last month. Added to that is the fact that this has been the most vigorous enlargement in EU history with all acceding countries having to work much harder for accession than any existing members.
But the story does not end with accession, as Karides said: “Cyprus now has to battle its own corner in Brussels and the more informed its citizens, interest groups and administration are the better it will be able to defend its 1/25 of the corner”.
100 days to go
By Stefanos Evripidou
TODAY marks a 100 days to Cyprus’ accession to the European Union on May 1 2004; the country’s biggest event since its independence in 1960. As the European Commission prepares for the union’s biggest enlargement to date, from 15 to 25 member states, 75 million people (from the 10 acceding countries) are left pondering what exactly it means to become a EU citizen?
Over the next 100 days, the Cyprus Mail will provide a fact a day on the practical effects of EU membership, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Fact of the day: EU membership provides Cypriot students with the opportunity to study at any university within the union at home student prices. Families will no longer have to dish out huge amounts (around £8,000 a year, depending on the course) to educate their children, as Cypriot students will cease to be ‘overseas students’ from May 1.
After accession, Cypriots will be termed European students and as such pay university fees equal to those for home students.
Since the majority of Cypriots seeking higher education end up on the windswept shores of the United Kingdom, students should expect to be charged £1-3,000 a year for academic fees, depending on the university of choice and the outcome of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s fight for top-up fees in the Commons on January 27.
