§ Baroness Gibson of Market Rasenasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in agreeing the relationship between the sovereign base areas in Cyprus and the European Union following Cyprus's accession. [HIL568]
§ Baroness AmosFurther to the Answer given by my noble friend Lady Symons of Vernham Dean to Lord Kilclooney of 5 December 2001, there has been very substantial progress on agreeing the relationship between the SBAs and the EU after Cyprus's accession. Our hope is that the final agreement will be in line with the policy set out in my noble friend's Answer: that the SBAs should remain outside the EU but with some technical adjustments to ensure the continued smooth functioning of the relationship between Cyprus and SBAs. To that end, a clearly defined and limited part of the acquis would apply to the SBAs. These arrangements would be compatible with the 1960 Treaty of Establishment and with the undertakings which we made at that time in relation to the SBAs.
The final agreement should take the form of a protocol which will be part of the terms of Cyprus's accession. A Bill will be introduced to enable ratification of the enlargement accession treaty.