Cyprus as lighthouse of the east Mediterranean: Shaping EU accession and reunification together

The simultaneous re-unification of Cyprus and accession to the EU could transform the political structures and interests that have up to now made it impossible to resolve the division of the island. More precisely, a large part of the future three-level organisation of government competencies (EU, common state and constituent state) is virtually prescribed in advance, given the requirements of EU accession, a presumption in favour of a largely decentralised assignment of competences to the constituent states, and the inevitable attribution of certain competences to the common state.

The area for possible contention between the two parties is therefore much narrower than suggested by earlier confrontations of federal versus confederal models, and different conceptions of state sovereignty. The EU level would be supplying structures, guarantees and incentives that could hold together a bi-communal Cyprus, where otherwise centrifugal forces would be more likely to prevail.

The report argues that a similar Belgian model has already demonstrated how essential features of a bi-communal state can fit into the legal and political structures of the EU.

The report makes the following recommendations: a single Cypriot UN and EU Member State; a three-tier political structure - EU, the common state and the two constituent states; some adjustment of the territorial border in favour of the Greek Cypriot community would resolve a substantial part of the refugee return problem, with property compensation arrangements for most of the others; international security guarantees and a peacekeeping presence for some time, whilst the island is progressively de-militarised