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Cyprus and EU agree to broaden inter-island trade
(Reuters)

4 February 2005



NICOSIA - Cyprus and the European Commission have agreed on broadening the scope of now restricted inter-island trade to boost economic links between estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots, an EU official said on Friday.


The deal would raise the ceiling on purchases allowed from Turkish Cypriot-controlled northern Cyprus and brought across the ceasefire line to the south, the part of the island effectively within the European Union.

Certain restrictions on trading in goods such as citrus fruits would also be eased, officials said.

“The commission welcomes the agreement which is more adapted to daily business practices,” the official in Nicosia told Reuters.

EU-sanctioned trade between Cyprus’s ethnically divided Greeks and Turks is governed by the so-called “Green Line Regulation” initiated in August 2004.

The “green line” is a 180-km (110-mile) ceasefire barrier stretching east to west separating the two ethnic groups, carved out after a Turkish invasion in 1974 prompted by a Greek-inspired coup.

Cyprus, which has a total population of just under a million, joined the European Union last May but effective membership is restricted to the Greek Cypriot south.

The Turkish Cypriot north is a breakaway state recognised only by Ankara and the enclave is hobbled by its inability to freely trade with the outside world.