This book examines the interrelationship
of the EU legal order and the Cyprus issue. The book addresses a question which
is of great significance for the legal order of the EU (as well as for Cypriots,
Turks, and Greeks), namely how the EU deals with the de facto division of the
island. Despite the partial normalization of relations between the two
ethno-religious groups on the island, Cyprus' accession to the EU has not led to
its reunification, nor to the restoration of human rights, nor to a complete end
to the political and economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Ironically enough, the accession of the island to the EU actually added a new
dimension to the division of the island. According to Protocol 10 on Cyprus to
the Act of Accession 2003, the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU with its entire
territory. However, due to the fact that its government cannot exercise
effective control over the whole island, pending a settlement, the application
of the acquis is 'suspended in those areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which
the government of the Republic of Cyprus does not have effective control.' Given
this unprecedented situation - for an EU Member State - of not controlling part
of its territory, the book analyzes the limits of the suspension of the EU
acquis in the areas north of the Green Line. In other words, the telos of this
particularly challenging research is to map the partial application of EU law in
an area where there are two competing claims of authority.
