The European Union's Policy On The Cyprus Issue

The strategic position of Cyprus has always been of vital importance in military strategists'view. After the 1974 division of Cyprus, the United Nations has always led the island's peace process, while the European Community does not pay too much attention on the issue of the island. But the instability of Cyprus does threat the EC's own interests in some degree, due to its fallout on the unity of the EC Member States,Taking into account the enlargement, as well as the interests in the Mediterranean region and the strategic needs ,the EC has got to engage the issue of the island since July 1988. In July 4, 1990, Cyprus applied to join the EC, which gave EC an opportunity to make use of Cyprus'entry as a "catalyst" to accelaterte the peaceful reunification of the island. The implementation of the "catalyst" policy led to strong reaction of Turkey and Turkish on the island, causing further deterioration. However, Cyprus still got the accession to European Union in May 1, 2004, in the state of seperation. EU's "catalytic" policy failed at last.After that, the EU continued to support the island's peace process. By making use of Turkey's eager desire for EU membership, the EC forced the Turkey to change its policy on Cyprus so as to promote the island's reunification. This paper attempts to analyze the EU's policy on Cyprus, puts forward new ideas to solve the problem in light of the new changes, that is, to reach the the third compromise between European Union, Turkey and Cyprus, to successfully achieve the peaceful reunification of the island.