Text to insist on transport implementation
EU foreign ministers are expected to agree today on the final text of the declaration designed to counter the unilateral declaration issued by Turkey after it signed the EU customs protocol in July and in which it said that it did not recognise the Republic of Cyprus.
British High Commissioner to Cyprus, Peter Millet, told journalists on Tuesday “we have a text that has emerged from ministeral discussions and that has resolved the issues as far as red lines are concerned”.
Britain is currently holder of the EU six-month rotating Presidency.
He said that “points of principle have been resolved by the ministers” and that he was “reasonably confident that we will get a positive result on the counter-declaration” at the COREPER meeting today.
The EU has already issued a counter-statement of an interim nature on recognition of Cyprus, but needed the Council Legal Service, which was on holiday in August, for a more formal statement.
Millett said that they needed to “go back with a clear statement on Turkey’s non-recognition of Cyprus and reiterate that point strongly” but added that a pre-condition that Turkey must recognise Cyprus before the talks start (which has been France’s position) was probably not possible, because it was not part of the conditions laid down in the EU Council conclusions last December.
Text will insist on transport implementation
He also hinted that the core part of the text that relates to implementation of the customs protocol as regards Cyprus ships had been agreed upon.
Turkey currently does not allow Cyprus-flagged ships to enter its territory.
Referring to the “elements of the declaration”, Millett, who was clearly reading from a written text while saying the following, said “that makes it clear that the EU expects full, non-discriminatory implementation of the Protocol and the removal of all obstacles to free movement of goods, including restrictions on means of transport. The EU will monitor this closely and evaluate the full implementation in 2006.”
“Clearly…once you’ve signed … something like this, full implementation must follow,” he added.
Millet acknowledged that France and Cyprus would like to include a timetable on implementation but said that this is part of the “detailed language” that was being negotiated.
While Millet noted that the EU counter-declaration would, like Turkey’s declaration, have no legal binding force, the Protocol already includes a dispute-mechanism procedure for breaches in the EU-Turkey customs union.
This implies that the issue could end up in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg–the EU’s highest court–if no political solution to the issue is found beforehand.
Text not being negotiated with Turkey
Millet said that the EU was not negotiating the text of the counter-declaration with Turkey.
“Just as the Turks didn’t negotiate their statement with us this is our collective statement among the 25 member states,” he said.
However, he said that the text would need to be such that it met the collective EU objective of starting EU accession negotiations on October 3 and didn’t result in “a train crash” with Turkey.
“We need to avoid tipping the balance as far as ratification of the Protocol itself is concerned,” he said, pointing to Turkey’s need to keep public opinion on board.
Not UK versus Cyprus
Millet was also at pains to counter reports in the Greek Cypriot media that the UK was pushing its own agenda, given that it is a declared EU objective that Turkey start negotiations on October 3.
But he also tripped over his own shoelaces in the process. Saying that he had been concerned about the local media presenting this “as if it is the UK versus Cyprus” he said, “I want crucially to correct the perception that this has been a UK versus Cyprus discussion. It has been the Presidecny playing the classic role of the Presidency trying to bridge gaps, find consensus and meet the declared UK, um, crucially, collective EU objective.”
Millett said that the EU Presidency had followed normal procedure, by first presenting a text based on advice from the Council Legal Service and then submitting another text based on ministers’ views.
“Our first draft included all the elements that the Council Legal Service had put forward and our second draft included as many of the points that we thought we could reach consensus on with the ministers.”
Foreign minister George Iacovou has already indicated that he is satisfied with the text.
Asked why the Government Spokesman, Kypros Chrysostomides, had said that Cyprus would not tolerate any attempt by Britain to impose their own agenda on the counter-declaration, Millet said “Well, I’d like to see any evidence that we have been doing that”, while adding that no delegation would tolerate any presidency driving its own country’s agenda.
Negotiating Framework next
Time is running out to agree the counter-declaration, because ministers need to approve the so-called negotiating framework that will set out in detail and in a binding way how negotiations with Turkey would proceed.
This is likely to include an emergency brake clause if Turkey is seen to reverse progress.
Implementation of the protocol is also likely to be covered in detail.
“There are issues there were implementation will come back”, Millett said.
Fiona Mullen
