The ambassador said he would like to see more EU involvement in the negotiations "because it is in our interest to have all of Cyprus into the EU and to have a Cypriot state which is functional in the EU, in line with the
acquis communautaire."
He said AKEL had spotted the amendment's incompatibility with
acquis communautaire during the relevant plenary discussion.
Nevertheless, he said that countries whose realistic expectations did not include accession to the Union in the next few years should think about intermediate steps towards full membership, such as an "EEA+" (European Economic Area Plus) that would allow them to implement the bulk of the
acquis communautaire n.
Examples of projects financed include: grants to Turkish Cypriot NGOs, villages, schools, students, SMEs (e1/435 million); reconciliation and confidence building projects such as demining (e1/46.5 million) and the Committee of Missing Persons (e1/43.5 million); projects in the water sector including desalination and waste water treatment plants in the northern part of Cyprus (e1/473 million); assistance to support the preparation for the implementation of the
acquis communautaire in the north following reunification (e1/414.5 million).
The Commission has been analysing the countries' state of preparedness in different areas of the
acquis communautaire, or body of law, since the formal October 2005 launch of accession talks.
The Island-wide implementation of the EU's legal system, the
acquis communautaire, the euro currency and a single central bank are essential for the Cyprus solution, said Andreas Pittas, President of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (EOB)
What the judge rejected was the claims by the Turkish Cypriot lawyer that the publication of the PDO application in a Turkish Cypriot newspaper constituted a breach of the current legislation whereby the government cannot enforce the
acquis communautaire in the occupied areas -- something he asserts was part of the Republic's accession treaty.
But, as Eurostat, the EU's Statistical Office, which recently published the latest information on expenditure and investment in the environment*, pointed out, the highest investment levels in the environment are in the new member states in order to conform with the
acquis communautaire.
Carried over from the October Council session, the decision to begin talks with the Balkans will mainly extend the
acquis communautaire, or accumulated body of EU legislation, to Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Kosovo.
The latest conference surveyed developments in the
acquis communautaire between the closure of chapters during the talks and October 1 this year.
Compliance with the
acquis communautaire, such as Chapter 27 on the environment, is an indispensable obligation of all potential candidates for the European Union.