Clerides

Firsta published at 24 April 2008 www.lrb.co.uk By Perry Anderson Enlargement, widely regarded as the greatest single achievement of the European Union since the end of the...

Firsta published at 24 April 2008 www.lrb.co.uk By Perry Anderson Enlargement, widely regarded as the greatest single achievement of the European Union since the end of the...

Firsta published at 24 April 2008 www.lrb.co.uk By Perry Anderson Enlargement, widely regarded as the greatest single achievement of the European Union since the end of the...

Enlargement, widely regarded as the greatest single achievement of the European Union since the end of the Cold War, and occasion for more or less unqualified self-congratulation, has left one inconspicuous thorn in the palm of Brussels. The furthest east of all the EU’s new acquisitions, even if the most prosperous and democratic, has been a tribulation to its establishment, one that neither fits the uplifting narrative of the deliverance of captive nations from Communism, nor furthers the strategic aims of Union diplomacy, indeed impedes them.

One of the reasons, many observers believe, President Obama comes to Greece this week, is to press Athens to be “helpful” for a “solution” to the Cyprus problem. On the other hand the European Commission is also pressing hard both Nicosia and Athens to accept a solution, even worse than the one the Cypriot people had rejected back in 2004, by voting by an overwhelming majority NO in a referendum held in both the territories controlled by the Republic of Cyprus and those under the control of the Turkish Army, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 and does not seem in any way willing to leave the island, with or without an agreed solution.