section_path: Potential enlargement/Cyprus
section_name: Cyprus
paragraph_text: Cyprus
  
  Cyprus as EU member state is committed by its Treaties of Accession to join the Schengen Area eventually. However, before fully implementing the Schengen rules, the state must have its preparedness assessed in four areas: air borders, visas, police cooperation, and personal data protection. This evaluation process involves a questionnaire and visits by EU experts to selected institutions and workplaces in the country under assessment.
  
  Although Cyprus, which joined the EU on 1 May 2004, is legally bound to join the Schengen Area, implementation has been delayed because of the Cyprus dispute. According to former Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Lillikas, "strict and full control based on Schengen will create a huge tribulation on a daily basis for the Turkish Cypriots " of Northern Cyprus, and it is unclear if this control is possible before the resolution of the dispute. The British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British Overseas Territory which is outside the EU, also needs "other handling and mechanisms". Akrotiri and Dhekelia has no border control to Cyprus, but has its own border control at its air base.
  
  In November 2019, Cyprus's Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Christodoulides revealed that Cyprus formally began the process of joining the Schengen Area in September. In July 2023, Cyprus joined the Schengen Information System (SIS), which allows for cooperation on crime, immigration and other security-related matters within the Schengen Area. In October 2023, the commission was to "verify that the necessary conditions for the application of the Schengen acquis in the field of the Schengen Information System have been met". The Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides expects the country to be ready to join the Schengen Area by the end of 2025.