"The limits of the veto strategy
By Nick Pittas
THE EU’s decision in Luxembourg this week to open and close provisionally the first of 35 chapters in Turkey’s EU accession negotiations (the easy one on Science and Research) is being presented by some as a triumph for Cyprus diplomacy because the EU reminded Turkey of its obligation to implement the additional protocol and customs union to the 10 newest EU members (including Cyprus). According to most EU members, Turkey is obliged to implement this obligation by the end of 2006. Turkey was also warned that “failure to implement its obligations in full will affect the overall progress of the negotiations”.
This warning will probably be repeated with increasing intensity as the EU gets closer to the programmed assessment of the progress of the accession negotiations and specifically Turkey’s compliance wit its legal obligations towards all EU members, including Cyprus, which will be evaluated by the EU this autumn.
Turkey, on the other, hand remains adamant that it will not implement the protocol, and open its airports and harbours to Cyprus registered ships and airplanes, until the EU lives up to its political or moral obligation to end the “isolation” of the Turkish Cypriots living in the so-called TRNC."
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