Cyprus's application for membership

Adopting the report by Mr BERTENS (ELDR, NL), the European Parliament confirmed that Cyprus belonged in Europe and qualified for membership of the European Union and supported the Commission's opinion and the Council's conclusions on Cyprus's application to join the European Community. It reiterated its previous positions on the reunification of the island as a sovereign, independent, twin-zone, twin-community federation in accordance with the United Nations resolutions on Cyprus and with Community acquis, with a view to joining the Union. It reiterated that the Union considered the island as a single entity, under the authority of a single, legal, internationally-recognized government and that the present status quo was unacceptable. It took note of several UN reports on Cyprus highlighting the deadlock in inter-community talks, due mainly to the lack of political will of the Turkish Cypriots and supported the call by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for all parties (including Greece and Turkey) to work more actively towards a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus question. In the same sense, Parliament called on the Secretary-General of the UN and the international Community to continue their efforts in this respect. At the same time, Parliament considered that the accession of Cyprus was a separate process and that the island should not be held hostage to relations between the Union and Turkey. In this respect, the European Parliament considered that accession might have a positive impact on accelerating the peace process. It also reaffirmed that enlargement should be accompanied by institutional changes at Community level and took note of the Council's decision to start accession negotiations six months after the close of the 1996 IGC. It also called on the Commission to continue its dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot population and to take concerted action with the Cypriot government to make the Turkish community aware of the advantages of accession. Finally, it called for the European Union to take joint action to speed up the peace process in Cyprus and compliance with the resolutions of the United Nations on Cyprus.�