NICOSIA Kyle Okposo Sabres Jersey , April 30 (Xinhua) -- When Cyprus joined the European Union (EU) amid pomp and fanfare along with nine other countries on May 1, 2004, the move had the acceptance of the overwhelming majority of the nearly 1 million people of the eastern Mediterranean island.
Ten year later to the date of accession, only 25 percent of Cypriots share a positive view of the EU, according to the latest opinion poll conducted by the University of Cyprus.
This situation is reflected in the lack of interest in the upcoming vote for the election of the island's six deputies to the European Parliament on May 25.
The poll showed that 42 percent of those asked were not interested at all in the elections, 25 percent had a small interest and only 33 percent had a big enough or a big interest in the vote.
CYPIROT ISSUE
Cyprus accession to the EU was achieved against all political odds.
The group was cool when Cyprus applied to start accession negotiations because it was a divided island and was faced with an intractable political problem which had defied decades of negotiations to solve.
It was only through political ploy and the diplomatic moves of then president Glafkos Clerides that the EU started talks with Cyprus. Within five years the negotiations were concluded successfully but the main obstacle still remained.
Cyprus was still a divided island and at odds with an all mighty neighbor, but Clerides managed to convince the EU that it was the Turkish side which was to be blamed for the lack of a political solution after a last minute flurry of diplomatic and political activity in Copenhagen, which involved all top European Commission officials.
The government of Cyprus counted on the contribution of the EU in reaching a solution reunifying the island.
"The accession of the entire territory of Cyprus to the EU -- with the suspension of the acquis communautaire in the areas where the Cypriot government does not exercise effective control -- was the best response to Turkey, which considered the Cyprus problem already solved through the illegal and unnatural division of the island in August 1974," said President Nicos Anastasiades in an interview with state owned Cyprus News Agency (CNA) to mark the 10th anniversary of EU accession.
Cyprus' acceptance was accompanied by a parallel move of according Turkey a candidate country status, meaning that accession negotiations would start immediately.
Turkey's accession was made conditional on applying the so called Ankara protocol, an agreement with the EU that Turkey would extend recognition to the Republic of Cyprus and open up its airspace and ports to Cypriot aircraft and shipping.
Ankara has refused to recognize the Cypriot government, which represents the whole of Cyprus in the United Nations and the European Union. It recognizes a breakaway entity set up in the north instead, calling itself the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus."
In response, Cyprus blocked several of Turkey's negotiating chapters. The Cyprus problem is also used as pretext by some countries which oppose full accession by Turkey to delay its negotiating process.
A large section of the Cypriot population believes that the EU did not show solidarity with an EU member and did not use its leverage on Turkey to bring about a solution. Many also blame European officials and some European countries of sometimes siding with Ankara out of economic and political considerations.
A majority of 52 percent of Cypriots think the island's accession to the EU actually had a negative effect on efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, according to the University of Cyprus poll.
But President Anastasiades, currently engaged in negotiations with the Turkish Cypriots, thinks otherwise, as he believes that the Cyprus issue works as a precondition for Turkey's EU membership.
"The Cyprus issue is not yet solved, but the accession of Cyprus to the EU, in a parallel track with the accession course of Turkey, have redefined the parameters of the Cyprus problem," he said in his CNA interview.
The Cypriot government has asked for a more active and substantive EU involvement in the Cyprus problem. A European Commission official has been instructed to watch closely the negotiating process, to make sure that proposals submitted by the two sides are in line with European principles, the "acquis communautaire."
BANKING CRISIS
Pro-European sentiment in Cyprus received an almost fatal blow when the Eurogroup imposed on the banking system of Cyprus a resolution, which included the world's first "bail-in", the recapitalization of the island's primary with depositors' money and the winding down of another bank.
The resolution of the banks turned the thriving and oversized banking system of Cyprus into almost mere bank buildings as the banks have been left with no liquidity to fund development.
This situation, along with harsh austerity measures introduced as a condition for a 10-billion-euro (13.8 billioin U.S. dollars) bailout agreed in March 2013, has caused widespread resentment against the Eurogroup, which Cyprus joint in 2008.
Sixty-three percent of Cypriots believe that joining the EU had a negative effect on the economy of the island and 55 percent of those polled said they had a negative view of the euro.
But President Anastasiades has a different view of the situation, though he is bitter with the treatment of Cyprus by its European partners.
"We must be honest. Cyprus was treated in the context of the economic crisis as a small and vulnerable EU member state and possibly was used as an experiment for the new EU policy for the rescue of banks with bail-in, which now seems to be formed at European level," he told Cyprus News Agency.
He dismissed the notion held by the majority that the problems of Cyprus were caused by the EU.
"Our economy reached a limit, n
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