Our aim is to brief you on the progress of negotiations with respect to Cyprus’ application for full membership of the European Union.

Cyprus applied for membership of the European Communities on 4 July 1990. In these pages you will find a brief history of Cyprus’ relations with the EU, which date back to the early seventies when an Association Agreement was established between Cyprus and the then EEC.

Accession negotiations between the EU and Cyprus were launched on 31 March 1998. The first stage, known as «acquis screening», involves the analytical examination of the acquis communautaire, during which the European Commission presents and explains the acquis in a certain area, the applicant country presents its own policy in the area, and the two are compared, so that the necessary legislative or other changes needed to achieve harmonisation are identified. This screening is expected to be completed by the fall of 1999. In the meantime, substantive negotiations on certain chapters of the acquis began on 10 November 1998. By clicking on to the words in blue you can obtain information on the subject. For example you track the progress in the negotiations procedure, or read the latest news updates in our news section.

Significant documents related to Cyprus and the EU, such as the EU Commission’s Opinion (avis on Cyprus’ application for membership or its proposals included in Agenda 2000, can be found in our Documents section.

In this website you can also find information on certain EU programmes in which Cyprus is participating (Leonardo, Socrates, Youth for Europe), and also benefits from funding from the Fourth Financial Protocol under the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership’s regional component.

The Cyprus government believes that accession to the EU will benefit the population of Cyprus as a whole, including the Turkish Cypriot community, and will help bring about peace and reconciliation on the island. With this objective in mind President Clerides presented an official invitation to the Turkish Cypriots to appoint representatives as full members of the team negotiating the accession of Cyprus to the European Union. This is still on the table.

The information is provided in Greek, Turkish and English.

In the near future we hope to be able to provide a forum for discussion where queries can be answered and views expressed.