IRELAND will have a change of heart and approve an EU enlargement treaty key to Cyprus’ entry hopes, the head of the island’s accession talks team, George Vassiliou predicted yesterday.
Vassiliou insisted Ireland’s rejection of the Nice treaty in a referendum last week would not stand in the way of Cyprus’s accession to the 15-nation block.
If Ireland does not eventually approve the treaty, Cyprus may find herself fighting it out with the other 11 accession candidates for one of five entry ‘berths’. The Nice treaty is designed to bring in reforms to allow for 12 new EU members. If not ratified by all 15 EU members, then only up to five new members can technically and legally still accede, as provided for by the 1997 Amsterdam treaty.
But, like Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou before him, Vassiliou yesterday appeared confident it would all work out all right for Cyprus in the end.
Vassiliou said there would be a fresh referendum o the Nice treaty in Ireland and that he was confident of a ‘yes’ vote this time round. He noted that all Irish parties were in favour of the enlargement treaty.
EU officials have been at pains to insist the Irish rejection would not halt enlargement plans and have spoken of tweaking the Nice agreement to allow Irish acceptance without altering its essence.
The timing of the rejection is deeply embarrassing for the EU, coming a week before a meeting between EU leaders and the leaders of candidate nations in Gothenburg, Sweden. Both President Clerides and Foreign Minister Cassoulides will be attending the Gothenburg summit, kicking off on Friday.
Cyprus opened entry negotiations with the EU in 1998 and is seen as a frontrunner among the 12 hopefuls. Nicosia hopes for entry by 2003.
The other candidates are Poland, the Czech republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta.
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.
