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Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou, Phoebus Athanassiou
European Foreign Affairs Review
Volume 29, Issue 3 (2024) pp. 231 – 246
https://doi.org/10.54648/eerr2024011
Abstract
Reflecting on twenty years of Cyprus’s EU membership, this paper aims to provide an account of the rationale for its accession to the EU and the euro area, and an assessment of their benefits. The argument made in the paper is that although it was security rather than economic considerations that accounted for Cyprus’s EU accession, the latter also came with certain financial benefits. Moreover, while Cyprus’s accession to the single currency was motivated by its desire to be part of the hard core of the European unification project, its euro area participation was to stand Cyprus in good stead in its hour of need, during the Cypriot sovereign debt crisis of 2012–2013. The paper also explores whether the unprecedented accession of a divided country to the EU may provide a source of inspiration for future enlargements, where sui generis circumstances prevail.
Keywords
Cyprus, EU accession rationale, sovereign debt crisis, differentiated integration, EU enlargement, euro area
Extract
Human rights due diligence (HRDD) regimes have been criticized for suffering from an accountability gap caused by the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms. In this respect, the upcoming EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence can be argued to be a fundamental step forward, as an infringement under the proposed Directive may result in substantial administrative fines. This article critically analyses the effectiveness of administrative corporate sanctions in the context of HRDD violations and suggests that morally light administrative sanctioning is not, as such, an appropriate mechanism in motivating impactful HRDD. Drawing on existing behavioural evidence on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, the article argues that any HRDD regime should rely, with the most severe breaches, on a corporate sanction system addressing the morality of the intended corporate behaviour in order to signal the societal significance of corporate human rights obligations and to support related value internalization in corporations. In terms of regulatory design, this means applying a liability system, whether criminal or adminisrative, which takes a clear stance towards corporate culpability, blame and the moral condemnation of severe HRDD violations.