Turkey’s boycott of the Cyprus EU presidency: Context, meaning and its consequences

EUC Working Paper (EU Centre in Singapore) No. 9, September 2012, 15 p.

Loke Hoe Yeong *

In 2011 Turkish officials began indicating their intention to suspend all contact with Cyprus’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), slated for the second half of 2012, given the issues surrounding the unresolved Cyprus conflict. This came as the latest development in a long and arduous path of Turkey’s application for EU membership that began in 1987. This paper provides the context – the Cyprus conflict, Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, and the Cyprus reunification talks – in understanding the reasons and consequences of Ankara’s boycott of the Cyprus presidency. The article also considers the evolving nature and the role of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, especially after the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, and how this may have played into Turkey’s calculations in calling for the boycott.

* Loke Hoe Yeong is Researcher / Policy and Programme Executive at the European Union Centre in Singapore.

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