PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos and British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday met in Downing Street amid rumors that Turkey would be signing its customs union protocol with the EU any day.
Also known as the Ankara protocol, the document would extend Turkey’s EU ties to all 10 new EU member states, including Cyprus. But the Turkish government has indicated this amounts to recognition of the Republic of Cyprus; and according to one of the more popular scenarios, the signing of the protocol may be qualified by an accompanying declaration to that effect.
For its part, Nicosia insists on being recognised by Ankara by the time accession negotiations get underway, and has made this a major tenet of its foreign policy ever since Turkey was awarded a date for the start of accession negotiations last December.
The EU has not made it a condition for opening negotiations that Ankara recognise Cyprus before the talks start.
Britain, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, is understood to favour more lenient terms for Turkey’s accession to the bloc. The meeting between Papadopoulos and Blair was therefore seen as clearing up the two countries’ stance, which has caused friction between Nicosia and London.
Following a warm handshake in front of the cameras, the two leaders took questions from journalists. President Papadopoulos said the two governments agreed to launch “an institutionalised dialogue” to improve bilateral relations.
In addition to the Ankara protocol, the agenda of the talks included European issues (such as the EU budget crisis), global terrorism and the Cyprus problem—particularly direct trade between the EU and the breakaway regime, another point of contention that has soured relations between Britain and Cyprus.
The British government supports the Turkish Cypriot view that the direct trade clause should go hand in hand with the 259 million euros earmarked as economic aid to the breakaway regime. Nicosia wants the two issues decoupled.
But as a sign of the give-and-take involved, Britain has recently appeared to modify its standpoint; latest reports say the British would agree to decoupling, as long as the direct trade issue were reviewed at a later time. Some kind of commitment is being sought from Nicosia that it will sit down and negotiate the matter.
Political pundits described yesterday’s meeting as crucial: the British premier was today scheduled to welcome Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reinforcing speculation that Ankara might be signing the protocol sometime in the next few days, or perhaps even today. Neither London nor Nicosia would comment on the rumors.
