Cyprus

1) REFERENCES

Commission Opinion [COM(93) 313 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [COM(98) 710 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [COM(1999) 502 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [COM(2000) 702 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [SEC(2001) 1745 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [COM(2002) 700 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Commission Report [COM(2003) 675 final - SEC(2003) 1202 - Not published in the Official Journal]

Treaty of Accession to the European Union [Official Journal L 236 of 23.09.2003]

2) SUMMARY

In its Opinion of July 1993, the Commission stated that, in some cases, substantial changes were needed to Cypriot consumer law if Cyprus were to join the European Community in the future.

The Report of November 1998, whilst recognising the progress made so far, called for an additional effort to be made to complete the transposition of the acquis and the application of the legislation.

In its Report of October 1999, the Commission stated that substantial progress had been made since the last report, particularly in the area of legislation.

The Report of October 2002 stated that Cyprus had reached an advanced stage in the area of legislative alignment and administrative capacity. Negotiations on this chapter had been provisionally closed and Cyprus had not requested any transitional measures.

The Report of October 2003 states that Cyprus meets most of the accession requirements in the areas of market surveillance and non-safety related measures. Continued efforts are needed to fully transpose and implement the Community acquis.The Treaty of Accession was signed on 16 April 2003 and accession took place on 1 May 2004.

COMMUNITY ACQUIS

The Community acquis covers the protection of consumers' economic interests (notably in the fields of misleading advertising, indication of prices, consumer credit, unfair contract terms, distance selling, package travel, and timeshares), general product safety, cosmetics safety, the labelling of textile products and toy safety.

New, recently adopted Community legislation (distance selling, comparative advertising and indication of prices) must also be transposed.

EVALUATION

Cyprus has made good progress with the transposition of the Community acquis, both in the protection of consumers' economic interests and in general product safety. However, progress still needs to be made in the following fields:

Safety-related measures: The revised Directive on general product safety still needs to be implemented, and improvements made to the infrastructures that test this safety, in order to better satisfy the market surveillance requirements.

Non-safety-related measures:

There is a need to develop and strengthen the arbitration boards' administrative structures, given the important role they play in settling consumer disputes.

Consumer associations:

Cyprus should do more to encourage greater participation from consumer associations in three areas:

• shaping and implementing consumer policy;
• developing safety standards for consumer products;
• supporting activities related to market surveillance.

Last updated: 14.01.2004