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Brussels, 5 March 1998
CYPRUS could be excluded from the launch of accession negotiations at the end of this month if the Greek Cypriot government does not show sufficient flexibility in allowing Turkish Cypriots to take part in the talks, warn EU insiders.
“If it turns out that President Glafcos Clerides is standing in the way of a compromise, he can kiss the start of accession negotiations goodbye,” said one Union diplomat. “We only have two sources of leverage to get the peace process back on track: the start of talks and treaty ratification. If we abandon the first point now, we will have no more leverage for another three years.”
The warning came as Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek embarked on one of the toughest diplo-matic challenges of his time in office.
During a three-day visit, alongside UK presidency representative David Hannay, he will attempt to broker a deal to involve both northern and southern Cypriots in EU accession negotiations.
At first glance, however, the mission appears doomed. Despite indications by the Greek Cypriots that they would allow representatives from the other community on the divided island into talks, their conditions appear unacceptable to the northern Turkish Cypriot leadership, which in any case says it does not want to take part at all.
The rise of illegal migration to Greece is prompting calls for more EU funding, writes Judith Crosbie.
A new effort is under way to include more African scientists in international research, writes Ed Steen.
With financial institutions being shaken by poor trading performance and bad debts, is there anything that private investors can do to protect their money? Stuart Langridge looks for clues at the plight of Northern Rock.
Brussels, 26 February 1998
EUROPE's banks have vowed to fight any move to widen existing EU rules which would force them to denounce suspected tax evasion by customers.
The European Banking Federation claims Union officials are contemplating broadening the scope of an existing directive which compels banks to alert national authorities to evidence of the laundering of proceeds from drug dealing, to cover suspected fiscal fraud by customers.
Its members' hostility to the idea stems from their belief that it would not work in practice, and would merely serve to damage their relationship with customers.
A spokeswoman for Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti confirmed this week that a report due out next month on the workings of the current directive was likely to suggest extending the obligation to declare suspicious transactions to other professions, such as lawyers.
She added that there was “big pressure” from member states and the European Parliament to extend the scope of the directive to bring in other crimes, but stressed that the Commission had not taken any decision.
Pressure for a European initiative follows tentative national moves to use banks to clamp down on fiscal fraud.
