Publication

This paper looks at the current EU accession negotiations with Turkey and the claim that Cyprus creates an impasse in this respect. It illustrates this common notion by focusing on the pro-Turkish debate in Spain. The author also examines the political situation in Turkey and developments in Cyprus after the Annan Plan rejection. He concludes that the real deadlock in the accession negotiations stems from Turkey itself; in part because of its own shortcomings, and in part because it still refuses to recognize Cyprus under its obligations to extend the 1996 EU-Turkey Customs Union to all new member-states.