Scepsis binnen EP over voorstel normaliseren handel met Noordelijk Cyprus op basis van Verdrag van Lissabon (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europees Parlement (EP) i, gepubliceerd op dinsdag 19 oktober 2010, 20:25.

EU trade with the northern part of Cyprus should be governed directly by EU single market and customs union rules, and not by the EU's rules for international trade. Possible trade with the northern part of Cyprus based on article 207 of the Lisbon Treaty on international trade would wrongly imply that it is not part of the EU, said the Legal Affairs Committee on Monday.

The EU has always considered Cyprus to have joined the EU as a whole, but upon accession by Cyprus in 2004, EU legislation was "temporarily suspended" in the areas not under the effective control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus. 

Cyprus's north-south divide is not an EU external border

The Legal Affairs Committee shared the opinion of the Parliament's legal service that the territory of Cyprus is fully part of EU customs territory. MEPs reiterated that the Union should not seek to regulate its internal arrangements for the movement of goods among Member States on the basis of the common commercial policy, as proposed in 2004 by the Commission, because this would "imply that de facto the line separating the territory of Cyprus would be tantamount to an external border of the Union".

"We need to keep things simple. It is difficult to draft a regulation on the basis of external action and trade policy because Cyprus as a whole is already a member of the EU", commented rapporteur Kurt Lechner (EPP, DE), adding "let's see the case as it is and not use other examples which do not fit". MEPs approved with 18 votes in favour, 5 against and one abstention the proposal of the rapporteur to adopt Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty of Cyprus to the EU as the correct legal basis of the regulation..

Ending the "temporary suspension"

Lifting the temporary suspension of the EU legislation would  require a new proposal, within a new legal framework (Article 1 (2) of Protocol n° 10), which says that it is for the Council to decide - on the basis of a proposal by the European Commission, on the withdrawal of the suspension of the internal market and customs rules. The Council will need to act unanimously.

Next steps

The Legal Affairs Committee will send its conclusions to the Conference of Presidents, which had asked it for its opinion.

In the chair: Klaus-Heiner LEHNE (EPP, DE)