Cyprus: current status of the Schengen membership application
Among the few EU Countries that bound to become part of the border-free travel area also known as Schengen Area, Cyprus is probably the only candidate nation whose membership application’s status is not yet in the final stages.
The Insular State became part of the European Union in 2004 and has since committed towards meeting the requirements to join the European Border-Free travel area.
Such candidacy process is though not simple to go through since the standards required are extremely high and specific.
When evaluating a Nation’s Schengen Membership Application, The European Commission has to appraise several criteria. These criteria include:
- Infrastructure and organisation
- Personal data protection policies and framework
- Border control legislation
- Police cooperation with other EU Member States
The Republic of Cyprus has already faced a number of obstacles to access Schengen in the recent past, including the concerns of many EU’s High Commission Officials about its ongoing territorial dispute with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRCN). The island of Cyprus remains indeed divided between the 2 nations as an aftermath of a civil conflict that took place in 1974.
Most recent updates on Cyprus’ candidacy
From 2019 to 2021
The first official step to join Schengen Area was announced by Cyprus’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Christodoulides during a session of the country’s House Committee on Finance on November 4th, 2019. Christodoulides revealed that the declaration of readiness was submitted in September 2019 and that the country would begin the next steps to Schengen membership immediately.
Also, he informed the committee that the Cypriot government had “submitted the application for security reasons”. He further detailed that, “we are now expecting the European Union to come and start its evaluation process which is divided into five parts.”
In June 2021, The European Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, has postponed the hopes of Cyprus to join the Schengen Area as, she declared, the island nation is not yet ready to become the newest member of the borderless zone yet.
Johansson’s comments came during the presentation of the package for strengthening the free movement within the EU’s Schengen Zone.
“That is why we are preparing to move forward, but Cyprus is not yet in a position to be evaluated and is not considered ready to enter the Schengen Area at the moment,” she reportedly stated.
The delay was also emphasized by EU’s Vice President Margaritis Schinas who declared, also in 2021, that “in this revised strategy for us, Schengen enlargement is a priority for the three countries, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia.”
2022
A major step forward was taken in February 2022 when the EU confirmed that it will finance infrastructural upgrades and border forces training that will help Cyprus have a better management of asylum seekers incoming migrants and will strongly sponsor Cyprus alignment with the EU’s border management standards and regulations.
Succeeding in meeting the EU standards on border control and migration could likely be the turning point on Cyprus’s Schengen application and could than get the state back in track along the previously mentioned 5-step approval process.
According to such process Cyprus will be required to carefully align its security and border data collection with the EU’s digital database framework and procedures. If Cyprus will be able to satisfy EU officials with its efforts and investments to maintain Schengen’s borders, it should than be approved for induction in the zone.
Cyprus approach towards ETIAS
Being bound to join Schengen Area, the Republic of Cyprus will be among the 34 countries requiring a valid ETIAS non-EU Visa Waiver Visitors from 2024.
Cyprus will therefore be part of the ETIAS program from its very inception even if that will probably occur before the island Nation will be able to fully join the border-free travel area.
To this extent the country already adapted its immigration laws allowing Schengen visa holders visiting from other member states to enter without a Cypriot visa, and it also established solid joint cooperations with the EU’s immigration and policing networks.
Moreover, the Republic of Cyprus already has closer ties to many central European institutions than some other countries in the EU. For instance, it is in the Eurozone and uses the Euro currency, unlike some other Schengen and non-Schengen EU members like Hungary, Czech Republic and Switzerland.