CYPRUS – EU presidency of the divided island in 2012

After the EU presidencies of Hungary, Poland and Denmark, Cyprus will have this “honor” in the second half of 2012. EU-presidencies are generally challenging for all EU member states, especially for smaller ones. In the case of Cyprus, this challenge is even more severe due to internal problems of the country. Cyprus is a divided island which joined the European Union in May 2004 but for the Turkish part of the island, the European Acquis communautaire is suspended. The European Union only recognizes the Greek Cypriot government as representation of the member state Cyprus and all national and international suggestions and attempts for a political solution which is acceptable for both parts have not shown results up to now.

Unlike the governmental level, civil society already engaged in some island-wide links. With the creation of CYINDEP,development NGOs from both communities created for the first time a real network which works as island-wide platform. Despite political and legal hindering factors, CYINDEP will be the civil society platform responsible for development related activities during the EU presidency.

TRIALOG has not only been supporting the creation and strengthening of CYINDEP since 2005 but also assists the platform in the preparation for the EU presidency. On May 12 and 13, Christine Bedoya and Andra Tanase from TRIALOG organized the first planning workshop for CYINDEP where they also invited the director of the Danish national platform Morten-Emil Hansen to present the plans for the Danish EU presidency and to agree on cooperation in topics that will be handed over and influence both presidencies. There will also be cooperation on other topics which might be led by Denmark both on governmental and on CSO level even beyond the Danish presidency period due to capacities and experiences, such as climate change and environment, the multiannual financial framework 2014 – 2020 and the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) review.

CYINDEP will concentrate its presidency activities on three areas:

EuroMed Policy with a main conference

Social agenda – based on the World Bank report linked to gender equality there should be prepared shadow reports for both parts of Cyprus

Global/Development Education on three levels: (i) DEAR in the EU multiannual financial framework 2014 – 2020; (ii) Policy recommendations for National DE Strategies (expert seminars) for both communities separately; (iii) advocacy campaign on development issues

Following, participants agreed on a concrete action plan, time frame and responsibilities within the “Presidency Task Force” of CYINDEP. Of course, there are still a lot of open questions related to activities in the Turkish part of Cyprus, the cooperation partners for activities, co-funding strategies etc. but the first big step is taken. TRIALOG will support the whole process and the linking with the other Trio members Poland and Denmark.

Information provided by Christine Bedoya, TRIALOG