Enlargement chief heads for Cyprus bearing EU gifts

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 04/05/05

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn will meet Cypriot leaders next week, in a fresh bid to end Turkish Cyprus's 30 years of economic isolation and to push for reunification of the island.

On 12 May Rehn will arrive in Cyprus for a two-day visit, where he is expected to meet Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat.

In his first visit to the island, Rehn is expected to champion proposals allowing direct trade in goods from the Turkish north with the rest of Europe and providing the self-styled state with €259 million in aid.

Already on the table for almost a year, the European Commission proposals have been blocked by the authorities in the Greek part of the island, which claim that they constitute de facto recognition of the north - legally recognised only by Turkey.

But with last month's election of Talat, who campaigned on a reunification ticket, there is fresh pressure on the EU to end the north's isolation and Rehn appears poised to try and find a breakthrough.

"During his visit some feelers will be put out," one Commission official said.

Representatives from the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Commerce pressed the EU this week to facilitate trade with the rest of Europe, as well as with the southern part of the island.

Turkish Cypriot goods have first to travel to the south in order to reach continental Europe. The group's Secretary General, Mustafa Gündüz said: "It is up to the Commission to do something." Gündüz added that anti-Turkish sentiment in the south made it difficult for entrepreneurs to distribute their goods there, something which commentators see as crucial to the north's support for a solution.

Rehn's visit comes as diplomatic activity increases to try and bring the two sides back to the negotiating table on the issue of re-unification.

US deputy assistant secretary of state Laura Kennedy is expected to arrive on the island on Thursday (5 May).

She wants Papadopoulos to list changes he wants to see to a UN unification plan, rejected last year in a referendum.

He has so far refused to do so and Commission diplomats look likely to adopt a more accommodating tone than their US counterparts in order to make progress on improving the economic situation in the north.

Rehn is also sympathetic to calls for the EU to play a greater role in the talks, despite scepticism among some EU officials that the Union can mediate in a dispute involving one of its own members.

Preview of a two-day visit of European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, to meet Cypriot leaders on 12-13 May 2005, in a fresh bid to end Turkish Cyprus's 30 years of economic isolation and to push for reunification of the island.