by hakan of cyprus
On 4 July 1990, the Government of Cyprus submitted an application for full membership in the EU. This came on the back of an Association Agreement already signed between the then European Community (EC) and Cyprus some 20 years earlier on 19 December 1972. There were, however, formidable obstacles in the way of Cyprus’s application for full membership; and they all emanated from the Cyprus problem.
Admitting Cyprus prior to a solution would naturally import the Cyprus problem into the EU. That was a most uncomfortable scenario from Brussels’s point of view. If Cyprus was admitted, then Turkey as an occupying power in control of more than 30 percent of the island’s territory would automatically be occupying the territory of a member state, which would put Ankara and the EU at loggerheads. None of the European powers wished to irritate their powerful eastern neighbor unnecessarily. That could have complicated their relations on a number of important issues at a time when cooperation between the two seemed more important than ever. However, keeping Cyprus out risked the veto by Greece of the application of all other candidate countries, something that Athens had threatened to do if Cyprus was refused entry.
The argument advanced by the government of Cyprus stated that Cyprus should not be punished for the invasion of the island by Turkey. Since it was Turkey, they said, that refused to abide by the resolutions of the UN asking for the withdrawal of its troops from the island, Ankara bore the responsibility for the continuation of the stalemate. Why should Cyprus therefore be deprived of membership in the European Union just because of Turkey’s misdeeds? Turkish Cypriots, on the other hand, believed that entry of Cyprus into the EU before a solution was reached would remove a strong incentive on the part of the Greek Cypriots to reach a settlement. Tying EU entry to a solution, however, would have the opposite effect, encouraging the Greek Cypriots to do their utmost to arrive at a solution. Once in the EU, Turkish Cypriots asserted, Greek Cypriots would be less willing to compromise, making an agreement all the more difficult.
The US was also concerned about the possible consequences of Cyprus’s entry, namely a deterioration of relations between Turkey and Europe, in turn potentially strengthening the Turkish Islamists’ hand. To that end, Washington sought reassurance from the Europeans that Cyprus’s admission into the EU would not compromise Ankara’s European vocation. Neither Washington nor Europe wished to leave an embittered Turkey sitting on the eastern flank of Europe to be drawn into radical Islamist politics. The only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and bordering Europe and the Middle East, Turkey was strategically too significant to be overlooked in regional and global calculations.
Despite all doubts and in spite of the Cyprus problem, the Republic of Cyprus, having signed the Accession Treaty on 16 April 2003, assumed full membership in the EU on 1 May of the same year. What made this possible, against the odds, was Greece’s unequivocal support for its application.
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