THE EUROPEAN socialists’ call for direct trade between the EU and the north invited a torrent of internal bickering yesterday, just a day after the government’s call for unity on the domestic front.
The government accused socialist EDEK of making “arbitrary” statements and being obsessed with blaming its handling of the Cyprus problem.
The latest incident began when the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the European Parliament (EP), released a statement on Tuesday supporting implementation of the direct trade regulation proposed by the European Commission in 2004.
President of the S&D group Martin Schulz said adoption of the regulation would help improve the Turkish Cypriot economy and facilitate a Cyprus solution. He said his group would support the early adoption of the regulation in the EP, which will discuss it on April 19.
Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule raised a few eyebrows when he recently sent the draft regulation to the EP, returning to an issue first raised six years ago when the EU pledged aid and trade to the Turkish Cypriots as a reward of sorts for their ‘yes’ vote in the Annan plan. In explaining why he had failed to mention the rebirth of the regulation to Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou in their recent meeting, Fule argued that the procedure had started last December with his predecessor, based on the new rules that apply under the Lisbon Treaty.
The Cypriot government had considered the effort to push through direct trade dead in the water based on the argument that this was not a matter of international trade, since northern Cyprus is part of the Republic, as stipulated in Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty. This view was supported by the European Council’s Legal Service which shared a similar legal interpretation.
However, the Commission holds a different view, which coincides with that of Turkey; mainly that the EU has failed to keep its promise to end Turkish Cypriot “isolation”. The latest step by Brussels reveals the draft regulation was more of a dormant volcano than a dead duck. One official source said the move was two-pronged, first, to put pressure on Greek Cypriots for a solution while giving Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat a much-needed push in his re-election bid.
The fact that the S&D group supports the regulation hugely increases its chances of passing the first hurdle, which is the EP.Iit must then pass through the European Council, which will decide using qualified majority voting, meaning the Republic no longer has a veto on the issue.
Schulz’ announcement was met with surprise by the government, the socialist party EDEK which is a member of the S&D group, and the two Cypriot deputies in the EP who also belong to the S&D group, DIKO’s Antigoni Papadopoulos and EDEK’s Kyriacos Mavronicolas.
Following heightened diplomatic activity, Schulz released a second “corrective” statement yesterday saying the S&D’s clear position on Cyprus is that it wants a solution as soon as possible to ensure stability in the region.
“In this sense, we have always supported financial assistance to the Turkish-speaking population and direct trade in order to strengthen the inner-Cypriot integration. However, it is evident, that in parallel the Ankara Protocol must be fully implemented. Turkey must recognise the Republic of Cyprus as it recognises every other EU-member state.”
EDEK and the government exchanged barbs yesterday over who was responsible for the clarification statement.
EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou accused the government of bad handling of the Cyprus problem, which had brought on negative international developments and invited pressure exclusively on the Greek Cypriot side, he said.
Meanwhile, Omirou attributed the second S&D statement to the actions of his party, saying he had spoken to them about the need for a corrective statement.
This in turn invited a volley of fire from government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou who said Schulz’ initial statement had nothing to do with the actions of the Greek Cypriot side.
“What madness is this… I think we should all be more careful not to create wrong impressions,” said Stefanou. He accused Omirou of trying to take all the glory for the second corrective statement when in fact President Demetris Chritofias had made intensive efforts along with Greek MEPs from socialist PASOK to counter the S&D position, resulting in a phone call between Christofias and Schulz and the subsequent second statement.
The spokesman noted that Christofias had the courtesy to inform Omirou about the latest development by phone. “Mr Omirou omitted to mention this,” said Stefanou, adding, “If Mr Omirou was going to be fair, he should have referred to that and not said ‘we acted to get this result’, because it was the president that had informed him of it.”
EDEK hit back saying that Omirou was referring to the actions that he and his MEP Mavronicolas had taken to handle the issue.
Meanwhile, the two MEPs, Papadopoulos and Mavronicolas, acknowledged in a letter to Schulz that they had not been informed by the S&D prior to its decision to support direct trade.
