Circumstantial and Utilitarian Euroscepticism: Bailed-in Cyprus during and after the Eurozone Crisis

ABSTRACT

The people and political parties in the Republic of Cyprus were very pro-EU before the outbreak of the eurozone crisis. Τhe 2013 bail-in, unprecedented for the EU, damaged confidence in the the Cypriot banking system and heightened Cypriots’ negative feelings towards the EU, leading to a dramatic decline in support. The article investigates whether there was a transformation of the supply and demand of euroscepticism in Cyprus, examining both parties and popular attitudes during the crisis years (2009–2019). A hard eurosceptic response proved to be only a fleeting moment and was not sustained. Utilitarianism, security and smallness seem key to understanding Cypriot patterns of soft euroscepticism which appear to fluctuate accordingly.

KEYWORDS:

• European integration
• European Union
• political parties
• public opinion
• small states
• security
• AKEL
• ELAM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2020.1776480

Notes

1. This article is concerned with the Republic of Cyprus which is an EU member and does not include the Turkish Cypriot administration which is not recognised by the international community.

2. Just as an indication of this smallness, the island of Cyprus is only 2.5 per cent of the total area of Germany in km².

3. The Annan Plan was a UN-sponsored plan, named after the then Secretary General of the UN, aimed at the reunification of the island. The referendum was held just one week prior to Cyprus’s official membership in the EU. Among the Greek Cypriots, most political actors and a majority in public opinion regarded the plan as unjust and unilateral in favour of Turkey and considered the pressure exercised by EU officials for the acceptance of the plan to be unacceptable. While Turkish Cypriots endorsed the plan, Greek Cypriots rejected it by an overwhelming majority of 76 per cent. EU pressure on the Greek Cypriots to accept the plan along with the tendency to isolate and ignore Cyprus and the actions to promote the economic development of the ‘northern part of Cyprus’ without the approval of the Cyprus Republic in the aftermath of the referendum led many Greek Cypriots to believe that the Union wanted to ‘punish’ them for their negative vote in the referendum.

4. In response to Cyprus’ discovery of natural gas in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EOZ) and its partnership with big oil firms to extract them, Turkey – which does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus – has threatened the oil companies with the use of force if they proceed with the extraction. According to Turkey, Cyprus has declared its EEZ unilaterally. Turkey has sent military ships on one occasion and prevented the Italian oil company ENI from performing confirmation drillings. At the same time, it has bought platforms and initiated drillings within Cyprus’ EEZ.

5. On the Greens’ pre-crisis criticisms of the EU, see the party’s 2009 European elections electoral manifesto, Green Party 2009, p. 2.

6. The questionnaire was prepared by the newspaper Politis and sent to all parties participating in the 2019 European elections. There were a number of questions regarding their positions on a number of EU-related issues.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yiannos Katsourides

Yiannos Katsourides is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Governance, University of Nicosia. His research interests include South European politics, Cyprus and Greek politics and history, radical left and far right political parties, political participation, political institutions, colonialism and nationalism. He is the author of three monographs and his articles have appeared in West European Politics, South European Society and Politics, and the Journal of European Integration, among others.