Activites

• 1995/09/25 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1995/07/12 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0342/1995 summary

    Adopting the report by Mr BERTENS (ELDR, NL), the European Parliament confirmed that Cyprus belonged in Europe and qualified for membership of the European Union and supported the Commission's opinion and the Council's conclusions on Cyprus's application to join the European Community. It reiterated its previous positions on the reunification of the island as a sovereign, independent, twin-zone, twin-community federation in accordance with the United Nations resolutions on Cyprus and with Community acquis, with a view to joining the Union. It reiterated that the Union considered the island as a single entity, under the authority of a single, legal, internationally-recognized government and that the present status quo was unacceptable. It took note of several UN reports on Cyprus highlighting the deadlock in inter-community talks, due mainly to the lack of political will of the Turkish Cypriots and supported the call by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for all parties (including Greece and Turkey) to work more actively towards a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus question. In the same sense, Parliament called on the Secretary-General of the UN and the international Community to continue their efforts in this respect. At the same time, Parliament considered that the accession of Cyprus was a separate process and that the island should not be held hostage to relations between the Union and Turkey. In this respect, the European Parliament considered that accession might have a positive impact on accelerating the peace process. It also reaffirmed that enlargement should be accompanied by institutional changes at Community level and took note of the Council's decision to start accession negotiations six months after the close of the 1996 IGC. It also called on the Commission to continue its dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot population and to take concerted action with the Cypriot government to make the Turkish community aware of the advantages of accession. Finally, it called for the European Union to take joint action to speed up the peace process in Cyprus and compliance with the resolutions of the United Nations on Cyprus.�

• 1995/07/11 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament summary

    Mr BERTENS (ELDR, NL) pointed out that Cyprus, which now had a thriving economy, was an important element in Europe’s policy in the Mediterranean basin. The EU should make every effort to ensure that Cyprus’ application was successful and to eliminate the dividing line between the Turks and the Greeks. Mr VAN DEN BROEK stated that Cyprus should not be held to ransom over the relations between the Union and Turkey, even though trade between the Community and Turkey had to be normalised, on condition that the Turkish Government made far-reaching guarantees in the field of human rights. In any case, the Commissioner stated that it was important to use the time before accession to try to integrate into the EU the entire island of Cyprus.

• 1995/06/21 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0156/1995
• 1994/12/12 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading

Documents

• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0156/1995
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0342/1995

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)