Head of Cyprus’ Negotiating Team for EU accession negotiations, Giorgos Vassiliou, supported the government’s recently proposed tax reforms, urging the House to speed their endorsement as this satisfies the acquis communautaire. Mr. Vassiliou also highlighted the need to press on with other pending matters for EU alignment, including introduction and amendments to legislation and status of certain institutions.

The target date for completing all necessary amendments is January 2003 and the need for the necessary infrastructure to be in place by then was underlined by Mr. Vassiliou. Taking into consideration the period surrounding the next presidential elections, actual time left for passing of legislation is less than one year.

Foreign Ministers of the six countries to be included in the first wave to join the EU will be meeting towards the end of this month in Limassol for discussions on their countries’ progress. The countries of the “Luxembourg Group” as they are known, include Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.