[A-List] Turkey: EU membership & Cyprus

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

UN sets out detailed peace plan for Cyprus
By Carola Hoyos in New York, Andreas Hadjipapas in Nicosia and Quentin Peel
in London
Financial Times: November 12 2002

 The United Nations on Monday presented a new peace plan for Cyprus to
leaders of the divided island, just one month before the European Union is
set to decide if it can be admitted as a member state.

Diplomats involved in the decades-old dispute believe that the plan
represents the best chance in many years for a settlement to resolve the
conflict between the island's Greek Cypriots and smaller Turkish community.

The plan calls for a state in the form of an "indissoluble partnership",
with a "common state" government and two equal "component states", drawing
on Switzerland as the model. "There is a single Cypriot citizenship," a
summary of the document states, but it adds: "All Cypriot citizens shall
also enjoy internal component state citizen status. Like the status of the
European Union, this status shall complement and not replace Cypriot
citizenship."

The plan also outlines a six-member presidential council, proportional to
the population of the two states, with a 10-month rotating presidency and
vice-presidency. It calls for a two-chamber parliament composed of 48
members each and a supreme court composed of nine judges: three from each
component state and three non-Cypriots.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, gained broad support for the plan from
the UN Security Council after a meeting during which he briefed the
15-member group. He hoped the document would settle the dispute within
weeks, UN officials said. An initial response from both sides is expected
within a week, with broad agreement hoped for within the next 30 days.

European Union leaders will meet in Copenhagen to ratify EU enlargement on
December 12. Diplomats hope that both Ankara and Athens will now seek to
persuade the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to settle their differences,
to ensure that a united island can be admitted to the EU.

Glafkos Clerides, Greek Cypriot president, has been invited to Athens for
talks with Costas Simitis, the Greek prime minister, on Saturday. Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development party that won the
recent Turkish elections, is due there next week.