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Then that's just normal practice, in so far as there are many instances of time limited exceptions to the acquis in accession situations. It's an unusual one and pretty nasty, but it doesn't seem like it establishes any new principle.

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.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Dec 12th, 2006 at 11:16:19 AM EST
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20 years is a bit much, but that can be negotiated down to 7, probably.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 12th, 2006 at 11:22:36 AM EST
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But, we're talking about the same country. This isn't Turks going to work in Belgium. This is Cypriots going to work in Cyprus.

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.

by Upstate NY on Tue Dec 12th, 2006 at 12:45:39 PM EST
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