Cyprus: accession to the European Union and progress in negotiations

The committee adopted the report by Jacques POOS (PES, L) on Cyprus's application for membership of the EU and the state of the negotiations. The report stated that Cyprus had achieved many of the necessary political and economic criteria for membership. The committee felt that Cyprus should expect to join the EU at an early stage and that a solution to the problem of the division of the island should not be a precondition for accession. However, it deplored "the lack of goodwill on the part of the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkey" to reach a settlement on this issue. The report concluded that the accession of Cyprus would strengthen the EU's influence in the eastern Mediterranean, thus making for greater security in that region. �