Paper Titles & Abstracts

For many sub-state regions, the EU provides favourable environment to strengthen the local governance structures and suitable structures to promote further participation to both state and also EU level. After all, the EU can be portrayed as a safe haven for sub-state actors to improve their visibility and increases their self-confidence of autonomy or independence claims. Yet, to what extend the doors of this safe haven is open and under what circumstances it can be utilised to advance political status of a region/sub-state actor? This paper aims to bring a counter-argument to abovementioned definition of the EU as a 'safe haven' by analysing the impact of the EU level factors in the political agenda of an unusual run-away region, the North Cyprus. Since the Republic of Cyprus's EU accession in 2004 on behalf of all Cyprus, North Cyprus became an EU anomaly, an EU territory with no official contact or regional representation at the EU level. The paper argues that under the given circumstances, the EU does not provide any favourable structures for North Cyprus to strengthen its claim of independence; rather it strengthens the feeling of a need for reunification with the RoC to gain further presence at Europe. This argument reveals that conclusion that the door of the EU is open only in the circumstance that the run-away region is also an integrated part of an EU member state.