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Cyprus: The Belgian ‘Tool Box’ Revisited
reached a landmark agreement to enter fully-fledged peace talks after four years of virtual stalemate
following the 2004 rejection by the Greek Cypriots of the UN Comprehensive Settlement Plan. They
met again in May and decided to review progress made by the technical committees. In their meeting
of July 1, 2008 the two leaders reached agreement in principle on the issues of citizenship and
sovereignty in a reunified island, and agreed to discuss the details of implementation during fullfledged
negotiations. In their last meeting of July 25, 2008 the leaders agreed (1) to start full-fledged
talks on 3 September 2008; (2) to start implementing sixteen specific confidence building measures
in the fields of environment, cultural/architectural heritage and administration of justice; (3) to
install a direct telephone line between the two leaders; and (4) to present the negotiated agreement
for the approval of the two communities through separate, simultaneous referenda.
2. David Bloomfield and Ben Reilly, “Characteristics of Deep-Rooted Conflict,” Democracy and
Deep-Rooted Conflict: Options for Negotiators (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy
and Electoral Assistance, 1999), p.9.
3. Bloomfield and Reilly, Democracy and Deep-Rooted Conflict: Options for Negotiators, p.9.
4. Blindenbacher, R. and Watts, R., “Federalism in a Changing World,” R. Blindenbacher and A.
Koller (eds.), Federalism in a Changing World: Learning from Each Other (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 2003), p.12.
5. Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century (London:
Atlantic Books, 2004), p. 26.
6. Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century, p. 51.
7. Dirk Rochtus, “Regional Parties in Belgium,” Rudolf Hrbek (ed.), Political Parties and Federalism
(Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2004), pp. 147-155.
8. Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century, p. 44.
9. Luk Van Langenhove, “Power to the Regions, but Not Yet Farewell to the Nation State,” Europe’s
World, Spring 115, (2008).
10. Tozun Bahcheli and Sid Noel,“Power Sharing for Cyprus (Again)? European Union Accession
and the Prospect for Reunification,” Sidney John Roderick Noel (ed.) From Power Sharing
to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies (Kingston: McGill-Queen’s
Press, 2005), p. 221.
11. See Nathalie Tocci, EU Accession Dynamics and Conflict Resolution: Catalyzing Peace or
Consolidating Partition In Cyprus? (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2004), p. 147. See Article
146 of the 1991 Treaty of Maastricht for an example of one such coordinating mechanism.
12. Bahcheli and Noel, “Power Sharing for Cyprus (Again)? European Union Accession and the
Prospect for Reunification,” p. 231.
13. The Security Council re-endorsed in resolution 716 (1991) that “the political equality of
the two communities in and the bi-communal nature of the federation need to be acknowledged”
while the UN Comprehensive Settlement Plan of March 31, 2004 in its Main Articles re-confirmed
that the relationship of the two communities is not one of majority and minority but one of political
equality where neither side may claim authority or jurisdiction over the other.
14. “The Cyprus Stalemate: What Next?,” International Crises Group, Europe Report No. 171,
(March 8, 2006), p.6.
15. Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci, Cyprus as Lighthouse of the East Mediterranean: Shaping
Re-unification and EU Accession Together (Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2003),
p. 8.
16. For further details see Maurice H. Mendelson, Why Cyprus Entry Into The European Union
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