EU Commission President warns Turkey on Cyprus

"Turkey's failure to implement the additional protocol, which opens its ports to the Greek Cypriot traffic, would have of course serious repercussions," Barroso told a press conference in Helsinki.

According to the Cihan News Agency, Barroso said that the accession talks with Turkey are generally on track and the EU Commission is scheduled to issue its regular progress report on Turkey.

EU Enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn had previously warned of a possible "train wreck" on Turkey's path to EU membership if there was no change in Turkey's stance on Cyprus.

Last year Turkey had signed the additional protocol of the Ankara Treaty which extended Turkey's Custom Union agreement to the 10 new members of European Union including Greek Cyprus.

The signing of the additional protocol had been a condition imposed by the EU prior to the opening of accession talks with Turkey on October of last year.

At the time Turkey specified that its signing of the protocol did not imply recognition of Greek Cyprus.

Turkey has since declined to implement the EU protocol by opening its ports to Greek Cyprus, due to the lack of a settled solution to the division of the island between the Turkish north and the Greek south.

Barroso said that the EU kept all its commitments to Ankara, calling on Turkey to fulfill all of its.

The EU, which opened actual accession talks with Turkey on June 12, has repeatedly called on Turkey to open its ports to the Greek Cypriots.

In reference to the first meeting between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders in Lefkosa, Barroso judged the unprecedented meeting as "encouraging," pledging that the Union will do everything to move the issue forward.

"The settlement of the issue could make the things easier for Turkey," said Barroso, acknowledging that the problem was not directly linked to the Turkey's EU accession talks.

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