By a Staff Reporter
THE EUROPEAN Union’s top enlargement official yesterday expressed cautious optimism that a peace settlement for Cyprus was still possible before the divided island joins the bloc next May.
UN-led talks aimed at ending Cyprus’ decades-old division collapsed in March, raising the prospect that only the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot half of the island would join the wealthy EU on May 1, 2004.
But last month, veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash — widely blamed for the failure of the UN talks — eased tensions by allowing the opening of checkpoints between the two halves of the island for the first time in nearly 30 years.
“I believe a window of opportunity will present itself before May 1, 2004, but I can’t exclude that this is too optimistic and that the window will open only before the end of October 2004,” said Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen.
The European Commission is due to complete a report at that time on Turkey’s readiness to begin accession negotiations.
EU leaders will decide whether to take that step, on the basis of the Commission report, in December 2004. Turkey, the only country to recognise Denktash’s Turkish Cypriot statelet in northern Cyprus, is very keen to start EU accession talks.
Verheugen, speaking to reporters after talks with Foreign Minister George Iakovou, said he would visit both halves of the island next month.
The EU is expected to ease economic restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots and unveil an aid package for their region.
A divided Cyprus in the EU could cement the partition and would certainly undermine Turkey’s own efforts to join the bloc.
Verheugen praised the recent flurry of border crossings by Greek and Turkish Cypriots as proof that the two communities had the “capacity, the will, to live in peace”.
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.
