Brussels, 04/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner in charge on enlargement warned in a speech on Tuesday to a group of British parliamentarians that Turkey should seriously think about the consequences that failure to resolve the Cyprus issue could have on European aspirations. He added that it was difficult to imagine how it would be possible to begin accession negotiations for Turkey, in the absence of re-unification for the islands and with Turkey, as from 1 May 2004, not recognising one of the Member States. Commissioner Verheugen pointed out that the EU was ready to give substantial support to the northern part of the island once the agreement was concluded. The Secretary General of the United Nations has set out a new deadline of 10 March for obtaining an agreement of the two parties on the island for organising a referendum on 30 March on the basis of its peace and reunification plan for the island. Kofi Anna declared that this would be the final deadline for Cyprus as a whole to be able to sign the EU accession treaty on 16 April. Commissioner Verheugen indicated that the European position in this connection was a clear preference for accession of the reunited country and that with or without regulation of the issue, Cyprus had to accede to the EU on 1 May 2004.
Commission Verheugen noted in his speech that Turkey had made the "impressive progress", although there were shortcomings with regard to respect for the political criteria or Copenhagen. "To encourage the reform process", the Commission is going to propose revising the accession partnership with a proposal for a "substantial increase in financial support for Turkey". Community sources indicate that this proposal is expected to be EUR 1.05 billion over 3 years: EUR 250 million in 2004; 300 in 2005; 500 in 2006 (see other article p 9).