The European Commission is initiating the procedure to unfreeze 3 funding packages to Turkey. The procedures were being blocked by Cyprus. The funds are being released in accordance to the commitment undertaken by president J.C.Juncker towards Turkey after the Eurozone-Turkey agreement on the refugee crisis
The Commission recently updated the documents of three chapters; “Education-Culture”, “Energy” and “Foreign Policy, Security and Defense Policy”.
According to the Cypriot press, Cyprus has already clarified to Brussels and the Dutch Eurozone presidency, that it will not agree to the release of these funds and it will not waive its veto as “the reasons that have led to the decision for a single-part block (in December 2009) have not been lifted but continue to be”.
According to a Commission source, both Hague and Brussels are perfectly aware of the Cypriot stance and arguments and will act in response to the Eurozone Presidency initiatives.
Should the presiding country, Holland, chose to include the subject of the unfreezing of the funds agreed for Turkey at the time of the negotiations for the refugee crisis, to the daily agenda of the European council, then Cyprus will officially object to the 27 Euro-partners and will veto the discussion. In that case the deliberations will stop immediately since any unfreezing of funds must carry the joint agreement of all 28 members of the council.
Should the Dutch presidency decide to not submit the subject to the council, judging that the necessary agreement cannot be reached (the usual procedure), then Cyprus will proceed to no further moves since the discussion will be moved to the long future.