STRASBOURG - The European Parliament (EP) delayed on Tuesday the vote on European Council regulation, aiming to extend financial assistance to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), till October.
In its today's meeting, the EP decided to discuss and vote the EU regulation on financial assistance to TRNC during its October session due between Oct. 25th and 28th.
Elmar Brok, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the EP, said during the meeting that ''nobody objected to the financial assistance to be extended to TRNC, but we need time to discuss further how this assistance would be extended.''
After Turkish Cypriot side voted ''yes'' and the Greek Cypriot side ''no'' to the UN peace plan on April 24th simultaneous referenda, the EU Council decided to end economic isolation of TRNC.
EU Commission, which launched initiatives after this decision of the Council, prepared a regulation, envisaging 259 million U.S. dollars of financial assistance to TRNC and enabling export of TRNC's agricultural products to EU countries.
(BRC-ULG) 14.09.2004