Tag: Northern Cyprus

The leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus have both called on voters in the divided island to reject the UN's reunification plan in the 24 April referenda.

Commissioner Verheugen is optimistic about the prospects of a Cyprus deal and says the EU would be "flexible" about accommodating its terms.

Following more than a month of inconclusive talks on the reunification of Cyprus, Athens, Ankara and the UN will step in on 24 March in an attempt to break the deadlock.

Greek elections: Conservatives win comfortably, thereby ousting the socialists. The result will have possible implications for the reunification of Cyprus.

The UN timetable on peace talks to reunify divided Cyprus is too tight and needs to be extended, says Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

With the talks on Cyprus very much on track, momentum is building within the Commission to fully support Turkey's EU bid.

The nomination by Cyprus of Markos Kyprianou to the post of EU Commissioner makes list of candidates complete.

During a three-day visit to Brussels, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will discuss his country's bid to join the EU. The reunification of Cyprus will be a key feature of the talks.

EU foreign ministers have launched talks on lifting the 15-year-old weapons sales ban on China.

Commission President Romano Prodi is scheduled to open landmark talks in Ankara on 15 January 2004 focussing on Turkey's EU membership bid.

The prospect of fresh elections is looming in Cyprus after the 14 December vote in the island ended in a deadlock.

Three Turkish Cypriot opposition parties agreed to cooperate in December's general elections with the aim of reaching a settlement with the Greek Cypriots to reunify the island and join the EU.

On 14 July, Cyprus House of Representatives voted unanimously in favour of EU membership.

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on 11 March that talks on the reunification of Cyprus had collapsed and would not continue.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will extend by ten days the original 28 February deadline for Cyprus' two communities to give the final answer to his proposed peace plan.

Cyprus opposition leader Tassos Papadopoulos won the Greek Cypriot presidential elections on 16 February 2003, defeating long-term leader Glafcos Clerides.

The EU secured an historical deal on eastward enlargement on 13 December after hard and lengthy bargaining with 10 candidate countries in Copenhagen.

The new Turkish Prime Minister, Abdullah Gül, deputy leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), said economic recovery, EU membership and resolving the Cyprus issue would be the main priorities for his government.

EU enlargement might be the last chance for the re-unification of Cyprus, states a new report by the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Negotiations between the Cypriot Greeks and Turks re-started in January this year to discuss the future of the island, divided between the Greeks and Turks for the last 28 years.

The Greek and the Turkish leaders of the divided island of Cyprus agreed to continue talks to end the division of the island before it joins the European Union. The breakthrough in talks between the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides and the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was reached during their first meeting in four years on 4 December in Nicosia. The two leaders agreed there would be no preconditions in future talks.

The leading Turkish business association, TÜSIAD, has warned that recent statements by Turkish leaders concerning Cyprus may harm Turkey's integration process into the European Union.

The Cyprus Permanent Representative to the EU, Theophilos Theophilou, said that Cyprus could block Turkey's bid to join the Union in the future if a political solution on the divided island is not reached. Mr Theophilou told the Financial Times newspaper on 18 July that if no agreement is reached by the time Cyprus joins, Turkish Cypriots will be deprived of the benefits of EU membership and Cyprus will have a veto over accession of Turkey to the EU.