The EU as an Actor in the Solution of the Cyprus Dispute: The Questions of ‘How’?
Publisher: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Volume: 26 pages, pdf Description: It is contended in this paper that the European Union (EU), through the dynamics of the membership accession process, has the potential to contribute to peace and security in and around the island of Cyprus, provided some conditions are met. However, unless the current approach of the EU is changed, the ongoing accession process between the EU and the Greek Cypriots on behalf of the whole of Cyprus will lead only to further securitization in the region. Up to now, the EU has been faced with an impasse whose sources lie in five interlinked developments. The first stems from the ambiguous strategy of the EU pertaining to the accession of the island. It is one thing to say that the lack of an a priori political settlement on the island would not constitute a precondition for the membership of the Greek Cypriots in the EU as representing the whole island.