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If a deal on Cyprus ever comes about, the gov't of cyprus will have toa ccept a host of derogations to the EU's acquis communitaire as a concession to Turkey.
A selective application of the free movement of persons would indeed violate the acquis. But I think that this problem can also be worked around. The free movement of persons has after all also been restricted for the new entrants in 2004 and will once again be restricted for Bulgarians and Romanians when they enter next January 1st. An arrangement is not impossible, provided that it is transitional.
There is one almost guaranteed to apply to Turkey when/if it joins: Turkish will not have freedom of movement to work for some time, just like the recent accession countries.
Though technically that's possibly not an exception to the acquis, it seems the same in practice: the rules don't always all apply immediately to new accession states and there are all sorts of time limited exceptions to things.
This isn't so much an issue of the lack of freedom of movement as much as it touches upon property rights, the right to commerce. A lot of the properties in the north were owned by displaced Greek Cypriots, and it's those limitations that have been problematic. In other words, people with land there, people who grew up there, are not allowed to move. As I wrote in the thread that Migeru linked to, Cyprus and Papadapoulos have already agreed to a limitation on movement in the 2002 Annan deal. This would apply to Greek Cypriots who do not have their origins in the north. In the 2004 deal, there was also a limitation on property owners AND, as well, the gov't of Cyprus would have to cover any restitution to these property owners, out of their own tax base.
Regardless, given the happenings this week, I'd say that for Cyprus, entering the EU has been a bad deal, and they certainly haven't gained from it, and likely won't. I'm starting to think they would have been better off outside the EU precisely because they have been blamed now for the partition. Before the referendum during the week of accession, they had the world's sympathy. Outside the EU, an agreement would have had to have been made based on reciprocal negotiations, but inside the EU, or together with accession, the reunification deal was negotiated by others. Their economy, such as it was, really doesn't gain much from the EU since it relies on 3 factors, two of which have been curtailed somewhat by accession.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/12/news/EU_GEN_EU_Summit.php
BRUSSELS, Belgium: With Turkey's membership talks partially frozen, the 25 EU leaders open a two-day summit Thursday where the bloc will signal to a half-dozen others waiting on the porch that they, too, should not bank on EU leniency if they want to get through the front door. The no-pushover message became easier to give to aspiring EU members after foreign ministers overcame internal differences Monday and drew a line in the sand for Turkey for refusing to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus.
The no-pushover message became easier to give to aspiring EU members after foreign ministers overcame internal differences Monday and drew a line in the sand for Turkey for refusing to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus.
It makes me wonder, however...if you're not a pushover, then why the need to issue "no pushover" messages at all? Do future EU candidates really think the EU is a pushover? Isn't such a warning redundant?
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