The Laws were a legacy of British colonial rule, left over after the Island gained Independence in the 1960s. While the south decriminalised homosexuality in 1998 in order to accede to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the North's disputed status means it lies outside the EU's jurisdiction. On the 27th of January in 2014, the Assembly of the Republic, the Northern Cypriot Parliament, voted to abolish the criminal code provisions that outlawed Same-sex relations between men and males, becoming the last territory in do so within Europe in order to decriminalise Sexual relations between consenting, Adult men. The Bill was signed into Law, and published in the official gazette on the 7th of February in 2014. It took immediate effect upon publication.