Cyprus-Forum.com

[Alasya]

A United Republic of Cyprus

in short consisting of three component states, which we can call "regions" to avoid using the term federal:

1) Turkish-speaking region (monolingual)
2) Greek-speaking region (monolingual)
3) Bilingual Nicosia Metropolitan region-Agglomeration (bilingual)

* although the greek and turkish-speaking states will be monolingual, all children will learn both languages at school. We could copy Luxembourg`s example. One year in Greek and the next year in Turkish, with the greater number of years in the native language of the pupil.

(no mention of Greek or Turk, but an insistence of language differences, these are easier to over-come)

Areas within the remit of state govts: Education, Welfare, Public Services, Tourism, Business law, health, garbage disposal, highway maintenance and state tax only

Areas within remit of Federal govt: Foreign Affairs, Citizenship, federal tax, monetary policy (through Central Bank) and policing and criminal law. And defence.

Areas within remit of EU: Agriculture, fisheries and environment as these are trans-national issues.

Some of above issues may overlap.

At a federal level, one National Assembly and one Senate.

National Assembly can consist of 78% Greek speaking Cypriot and 22% Turkish-speaking Cypriot. This is based on current population, RoC 640,000, TRNC 175,000 (minus 50,000 settlers). This will be subject to change, but the number of deputies of each must never drop below 25%.

Senate can be 50% Greek-speaking Cypriot and 50% Turkish-speaking Cypriot.

A president who can be either Greek-speaking Cypriot or Turkish-speaking Cypriot, no special rules or rotational presidency, based on system of meritocracy. Who ever it is will have to campaign in both Greek and Turkish-speaking regions.

A Presidential council or National council which will consist of 6 members, 4 Native Greek-speakers and 2 native Turkish-speakers. To pass a bill one must have atleast two Greek-speaking Cypriot and 1 Turkish-speaking Cypriot.
(this bit is from the Annan plan 5).

No restrictions on freedom of settlement or movement.

Training of police to root out and destroy any extremists plotting to cause tension. We must be able to distinguish between trouble-makers and the 99,9% of Cypriots who are not trouble-makers. These extremists will be severely punished under both federal and state law.

[/b]

[boulio]

tourism should be on a national level,and what about defence?

[Alasya]

Tourism is a funny one, it can go into either state and federal. Most states have separate tourism boards for their regions too.

You`ve just given me an idea, we could call it "National and regional", as opposed to "Federal and State".

[Alasya]

Might I just add that the eventual aim will be that there will only be Cypriots, and that they will be bilingual. I imagine for most, speaking their own native language better than the other language, but nonetheless having a good working knowledge of the second language.

Also history will be taught in a enquiry based way, and nationalism Greek and Turkish will be evicted from all Schools. Children will be taught the Cyprus national anthem and will learn to sing it in both languages.

[erolz]

At a federal level, one National Assembly and one Senate.

National Assembly can consist of 78% Greek speaking Cypriot and 22% Turkish-speaking Cypriot. This is based on current population, RoC 640,000, TRNC 175,000 (minus 50,000 settlers). This will be subject to change, but the number of deputies of each must never drop below 25%.

Senate can be 50% Greek-speaking Cypriot and 50% Turkish-speaking Cypriot.

A president who can be either Greek-speaking Cypriot or Turkish-speaking Cypriot, no special rules or rotational presidency, based on system of meritocracy. Who ever it is will have to campaign in both Greek and Turkish-speaking regions.

A Presidential council or National council which will consist of 6 members, 4 Native Greek-speakers and 2 native Turkish-speakers. To pass a bill one must have atleast two Greek-speaking Cypriot and 1 Turkish-speaking Cypriot.
(this bit is from the Annan plan 5).

Sorry for my ignorance but what does a National Assembly do vs the senate or vs the National council ?

None of these terms are familure to my UK background. In the UK we have two 'houses' a house of commons made up of elected MP's, with government in sole control of the majority political party (or coalition of parties necessary to make up more than half of all MPs - though in uk this has never happened as far as I know). The second house (house of lords) is made up of (government) appointed 'lords' (though this is subject to some discussion / change currently).
Laws are drawn up by the party in control of government and first have to pass in the house of commons - which given that the party in power is also a majority in house of commons should be straight forward but often is not with even government MP's rebelling and forcing either change to the proposed law or focring it to be abandoned all togeather. The bigger the governments majority the more chance it can get its proposed legisaltion through the house of commons. Once the house of commons has approved the proposed law it then goes through a simialr process in the house of lords, where again it can be modified or rejected outright. If and when it passes through the lords it then becomes 'statue' (law) in the UK.

How does the system above 'match' or 'differ' to this (admitiedly very over simplified version) of what happens in the UK?

[boulio]

his national assembly would be the house of commons or in the US the house of representitives.

[Alexandros Lordos]

Alasya,

thank you for your wonderful contribution ...

Some thoughts and comments:

1. I like the distinction based on language rather than ethnicity. Also, the thoughts on how to achieve bilingualism ...

2. A third region - bilingual ... who would be in charge of this? The Federal govt? Or a third constituent state? If it is a third state, how do you see it working out in the legislature, when each state will send its reprersentatives? Anyway, I think it is a great idea, it would give GCs and TCs the chance to really co-operate and co-decide on matters of daily life.

3. You will find that the idea of a president - GC or TC - with full executive powers, will on the whole be unacceptable to TCs - because they would rightly fear that a GC would get elected each time, and, after getting their votes, might very well proceed to ignore them. I think the executive has to be the way it is in the Annan Plan, with collective responsibility and a rotating symbolic presidency. However, this presidential council should be elected by the people directly, as you suggest, with campaigning in both sides. As the Annan Plan is now, there is no instance where the two communities would both vote in the same ballot!

4. Bills of the Presidential council ...hmm, bills are passed by the legislature, rather than the executive. The executive just ... executes the bill which the legislature passes. The only decision the executive makes is how to execute bills. Am I wrong here?

[Alasya]

Alexandros

"2. A third region - bilingual ... who would be in charge of this? The Federal govt? Or a third constituent state? If it is a third state, how do you see it working out in the legislature, when each state will send its reprersentatives? Anyway, I think it is a great idea, it would give GCs and TCs the chance to really co-operate and co-decide on matters of daily life. "


I am not sure, any ideas!

I need to check out how Brussels operates (since this idea is based on Brussels).

"3. You will find that the idea of a president - GC or TC - with full executive powers, will on the whole be unacceptable to TCs - because they would rightly fear that a GC would get elected each time, and, after getting their votes, might very well proceed to ignore them. I think the executive has to be the way it is in the Annan Plan, with collective responsibility and a rotating symbolic presidency. However, this presidential council should be elected by the people directly, as you suggest, with campaigning in both sides. As the Annan Plan is now, there is no instance where the two communities would both vote in the same ballot! "


Maybe you are right, a rotational presidency is fine with the me. I think the presidential council will be appointed by deputies of the two assembles elected by the people.


"4. Bills of the Presidential council ...hmm, bills are passed by the legislature, rather than the executive. The executive just ... executes the bill which the legislature passes. The only decision the executive makes is how to execute bills. Am I wrong here?"


Execute bills that is what I meant sorry!

[Alasya]

erolz

"Sorry for my ignorance but what does a National Assembly do vs the senate or vs the National council ?

None of these terms are familure to my UK background. In the UK we have two 'houses' a house of commons made up of elected MP's, with government in sole control of the majority political party (or coalition of parties necessary to make up more than half of all MPs - though in uk this has never happened as far as I know). The second house (house of lords) is made up of (government) appointed 'lords' (though this is subject to some discussion / change currently).
Laws are drawn up by the party in control of government and first have to pass in the house of commons - which given that the party in power is also a majority in house of commons should be straight forward but often is not with even government MP's rebelling and forcing either change to the proposed law or focring it to be abandoned all togeather. The bigger the governments majority the more chance it can get its proposed legisaltion through the house of commons. Once the house of commons has approved the proposed law it then goes through a simialr process in the house of lords, where again it can be modified or rejected outright. If and when it passes through the lords it then becomes 'statue' (law) in the UK.

How does the system above 'match' or 'differ' to this (admitiedly very over simplified version) of what happens in the UK?"


boulio is right the National Assembly is equivalent to the House of Commons, while the Senate would be similar to your House of Lords. It works in a similar way but of course its members are allowed to discuss issues only at a federal level or national level. The National Assembly and senate would both be at a federal level. Each deputy speaks his own language during discussion and the translators do their work in the backround.

It differs to the UK as the Belgian model is a federal model, unlike the Scottish and Welsh parliaments which are based on devolution from Westminister, the regional / state parliaments in Belgium have greater powers than any region in the UK even Northern Ireland.
Also there is bilinguilism, and the need to form coalition govts will most likely pop up.

Political Parties

Unless the political parties can adopt a pan-Cyprian nature, marshalling support, and collecting votes from all over the island, that party would be doomed to forming coalition govts at a federal level.

It is conceivable that the first party in the new Cyprus to win in federal elections will be the one who can collect votes under proportinal representation from both linguitic regions.

My guess is that this system would work better for parties like AKEL, (parties on the left) at first, but will eventually include other Centre/Right G/C parties who would be forced to spread their campaigning to the Turkish-speaking region. This is because AKEL already has good relations with the Turkish-speakers and now DISY is trying to do the same. At a federal level they would need to extend their party programme to atract all Cypriots.

Realising that to stay in power they have to collect votes from both linguistic regions, the most successful politicians will be those who can attract support from both regions-who are the most pan-Cyprian.

In Belgium this already the case with parties left and right creating bilingual party programmes. The current Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt is Flemish but he calls himself a Belgian, his party programme is Belgian (not Flemish) and with his excellent command of French and French-speaking contacts and his popularity from French-speakers you would never be able to guess otherwise.

However even if in the new Cyprus parties had to form coalitions, its not the end of the World.

PM and President or just President

What everybody think about this?

[Alasya]

Well I ought to correct myself here,

The Senate is some what different to the House of Lords, it can be elected or appointed.