FES BRIEFING CYPRUS Trade Union Monitor August 2020 POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL AND SOCIAL CONDIDITONS POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Ever since a Greek coup and an ensuing Turkish invasion in 1974 the island of Cyprus is divided into two parts. The Greek Cypriot community lives south of the dividing line in the inter­nationally recognized Republic of Cyprus. The Turkish Cypri­ots live in the north in the internationally not recognized Turk­ish Republic of Northern Cyprus. 1 Most of the year 2019 was characterized by a standstill and uncertainty in the Cyprus question, which has prevailed since the collapse of the last round of talks aimed at the reunifica­tion of the island at an international conference in Crans Montana, Switzerland in July 2017. Until the tripartite meet­ing of the two Cypriot leaders with the UN Secretary General on 25 November 2019 in Berlin, the Cyprus question had pri­marily been discussed around what should be the way ahead and on what basis the future solution would be – two states, a confederation or the long-time established federal basis. The Berlin tripartite meeting put an end to the questions on the basis of the future solution since the two Cypriot leaders confirmed their commitment to finding a bi-zonal, bi-com­munal federal solution to the Cyprus conflict in the presence of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The expecta­tion after the Berlin meeting was to resume the negotiations after the Turkish Cypriot Presidential election that was sched­uled for April 2020. 1 The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(TRNC) is only recognised by the Republic of Turkey. While for Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, Mustafa Akinci serves as President of the TRNC, the international community considers him the communal leader of the Turkish Cypriots. As the government of the Republic of Cyprus remains internationally recognised as the government of the whole of the island, the entire island is now considered to be a member of the European Union. However, the Acquis Communautaire is suspended in northern Cyprus pending a political settlement to the Cyprus problem(see Protocol no. 10 of the Accession Treaty). The escalation of the confrontation about the hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation off the coast of the island re­mained the most dynamic and dangerous aspect of the Cy­prus Problem. In 2019 in response to the unilateral explora­tion activities of the Greek Cypriots and the regional cooper­ation of the Republic of Cyprus on hydrocarbons with Israel, Egypt and Greece, Turkey escalated the situation. First Anka­ra started to drill in areas claimed by the Republic of Cyprus as its exclusive economic zone(EEZ) with the approval of the Turkish Cypriot authorities. Then Ankara signed an agreement with the government of Libya over the delineation of their re­spective EEZs and threatened to start drilling in areas claimed by Greece as its own EEZ. Domestically, the Republic of Cyprus had a quiet year. There were only elections for the European parliament in which the four parties managed to hold on to their seats.(DISY 2, AKEL 2, DIKO 1, EDEK 1). The northern part of Cyprus continued to suffer from political and economic instability in 2019. After months of specula­tions about the future of the four-party coalition, on May 8, the party assembly of Kudret Ozersay’s People’s Party(HP) decided to withdraw from the coalition. The pretext was the leasing of public land to Minister of Finance Serdar Denkta ş ’s son’s company to build a university campus on it. However, many political observers saw Ozersay’s maneuver as a move to secure the support of the UBP in his bid to become the president in 2020 by handing the government to the UBP -both parties have similar views regarding the handling of the Cyprus issue, which is the main mandate of the president. On a last-ditch attempt to save the coalition, Serdar Denkta ş had tendered his resignation as Minister of Finance, to no avail. As a result, the first four-party coalition government, which had inspired hope when it was formed, came to an end only after 15 months. The HP’s decision paved the way for the forming of the long-rumored and anticipated coalition government be­tween the National Unity Party(UBP)(right-leaning) and HP (centrist). On May 22, the UBP and HP had signed a coalition 1