EU 25 to open or close Turkey’s negotiating chapters

Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said that yesterday’s decision by the permanent representatives of EU members to open the chapter Enterprise and Industrial Policy in Turkey’s accession negotiations is in accordance with the conclusions of the European Council.

At the same time, he stressed that every member state, at an Intergovernmental level, maintains the right to allow or block the opening of negotiating chapters, based on the acquis communautaire and the criteria set out for candidate states.

Speaking during a tour of National Guard posts, President Papadopoulos said the Republic of Cyprus will examine every chapter in the accession negotiations on the basis of circumstances at the time and Turkey’s positions, the contents of the chapter and the way it is promoted.

President Papadopoulos said that the eight chapters which the European Council had decided to freeze for the time being are interconnected.

“Every chapter will be examined according to existing circumstances, depending on Turkey’s attitude towards Cyprus and the contents of the chapter,” the Cypriot President said.

The President dismissed press suggestions that there was an effort yesterday to exert pressure on Cyprus.

He said that some countries believe that the sanctions imposed by the EU on Turkey for failing to comply with the provisions of the additional protocol to the Ankara agreement are sufficiently serious. Others, he noted, believe that they are light and therefore all remaining chapters should open without any problem.

”Cyprus contests the inalienable right of member states to decide for each separate chapter, based on the criteria of the acquis communautaire,” he stressed.

Asked if there are developments concerning a bridge built by the Turkish occupation regime at the end of

Ledra Street

, in the divided capital Nicosia, the President said he was not aware of anything new, adding that the government position on the matter is known to the UN and the Turkish Cypriots.

”If the bridge does not come down, we are not going to discuss the matter further,” he said, noting that no crossing point will open at the commercial Ledra street, until the bridge and all the symbols which have been erected there are removed.