page_title: Special member state territories and the European Union
section_title: Cyprus
hierarchical_section_title: Special member state territories and the European Union / Special cases / Cyprus
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: grenspost
context_page_description: The special territories of the European Union are 22 dependent territories of EU member states which, for historical, geographical, or political reasons, enjoy special status within or outside the European Union.
  The special territories divide themselves in three categories: 9 Outermost Regions that form part of the European Union, though they benefit from derogations from some EU laws due to their geographical remoteness from mainland Europe, 13 Overseas Countries and Territories that do not form part of the European Union, though they cooperate with the EU via the Overseas Countries and Territories Association, and 10 special cases that form part of the European Union, though EU law make ad hoc provisions.
  The Outermost Regions were recognised at the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, and confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states that both primary and secondary European Union law applies automatically to the outermost regions, with possible derogations due to the particularities of these territories.
context_section_description: When the Republic of Cyprus became part of the European Union on 1 May 2004, the northern third of the island was outside of the effective control of its government due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, a United Nations buffer zone of varying width separated the two parts, and a further 3% of the island was taken up by UK sovereign bases (under British sovereignty since the Treaty of Establishment in 1960). Two protocols to the Treaty of Accession 2003—numbers 3 and 10, known as the "Sovereign Base Areas Protocol" and the "Cyprus Protocol" respectively – reflect this complex situation.
  EU law only applies fully to the part of the island that is effectively controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus. EU law is suspended in the northern third of the island (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, whose independence is recognised only by Turkey) by article 1(1) of the Cyprus Protocol. If the island is reunified, the Council of the European Union will repeal the suspension by a decision. Four months after such a decision has been adopted, new elections to the European Parliament will be held on the island to elect Cypriot representatives from the whole of the island.
  Cypriot nationality law applies to the entire island and is accordingly available to the inhabitants of Northern Cyprus and the British sovereign base areas on the same basis as to those born in the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. Citizens of the Republic of Cyprus living in Northern Cyprus are EU citizens and are nominally entitled to vote in elections to the European Parliament; however, elections to that Parliament are not organised in Northern Cyprus as it is governed de facto a separate state, albeit a state recognized only by Turkey.
caption: The internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
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