Cyprus’ Schengen accession to go before EU Council in September

The question of whether Cyprus should join Europe’s border-free Schengen zone will be effectively placed before the Council of the European Union in September, with the European Commission having confirmed its own “positive assessment” of the island’s preparedness to join. Commission spokesman Markus Lammert said on Wednesday that the college of commissioners had on Tuesday adopted a report on the state of Cyprus’ application, which had been based on the monitoring of Cyprus’ preparedness conducted for the EU’s annual “State of Schengen” report, which was released in May. The college of commissioners is made up of 27 members – one from each country – and effectively functions as the EU’s cabinet. Its members include European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, fisheries commissioner Costas Kadis, a Cypriot national, the commission’s envoy for the Cyprus problem Raffaele Fitto, in his capacity as executive vice president for cohesion and reforms, and Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who once described himself as Cyprus’ second commissioner. Lammert explained on Wednesday that with the commission now having formally taken a position, it will formally present the “State of Schengen” report to the Council of the EU in September. “It is clear that decisions on when and how Cyprus joins the Schengen area lie with the council. The commission’s position is very clear. Cyprus’ full accession to the Schengen area would be strengthening the common framework of shared rules, standards, and responsibilities that underwrite Schengen cooperation,” he said. For a new country to join the Schengen zone, a unanimous decision to that end must be taken by all of the countries inside the zone which are also members of the EU. They currently number 25, with only Cyprus and Ireland remaining on the outside. The four Schengen zone countries which are not EU member states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – are party to discussions but are not afforded votes in the process. As the Cyprus Mail has been informed, von der Leyen has personally been one of the main driving forces behind the push for Cyprus to join the Schengen zone. “For years and years, the view across Europe was that Cyprus can never join the Schengen zone without the Cyprus problem being solved. Now, however, von der Leyen has told each member state that Cyprus must join the Schengen zone, and that they must acquiesce to it,” one diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity said. However, some have expressed reservations about the feasibility of the plans for Cyprus’ to join the Schengen zone and the impact it may have on the Cyprus problem. This is in part because many believe that the Cypriot government’s insistence that the Schengen zone’s new digital entry/exit system will not be implemented at the nine crossing points which connect the island’s two sides will not be possible in reality. As such, Cyprus would likely be required to either effectively turn the Green Line into a hard border or have Europe face an administrative breakdown in the tracking of people entering and leaving the Schengen zone. Given this to be the case, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman has said that it is “extremely important” for the Turkish Cypriot side to be involved in Cyprus’ accession to the Schengen zone. He also warned that Schengen accession “has the potential to bring about many complications, especially in the area of freedom of movement” regarding Turkish Cypriots, especially those who are not citizens of the Republic of Cyprus. Cyprus is one of just two EU member states which remain outside the Schengen zone, with Ireland, the other, electing not to fully join the zone so as to not prejudice its common travel agreement with the United Kingdom, which is outside the EU, the Schengen zone, the European single market, and the European customs union. Romania and Bulgaria were the most recent two countries to join the Schengen zone, becoming full members at the beginning of last year.