Venting anger at Greek Cypriots for rejecting a UN plan to reunite their island, the European Union vowed on Monday to help the minority Turkish Cypriots, who backed the plan, escape economic isolation.
EU foreign ministers gave their Greek Cypriot colleague a tongue-lashing at a closed-door lunch after the Nicosia government spearheaded the campaign for a "no" to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's peace blueprint, diplomats said.
"This is an affront to Europe," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told Reuters. "Those who campaigned for a "no" may perhaps not have measured all the consequences."
In a statement, the ministers regretted it would not now be possible for a united Cyprus to join the EU on May 1 and called for 259 million euros set aside to back a settlement to be spent instead on the economic development of Turkish northern Cyprus.
The European Commission said it would co-operate to that end with Turkish Cypriot authorities, shunned by the international community since Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a short-lived coup in Nicosia fomented by Greece.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said this was not tantamount to recognising the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Ankara, but it was a clear gesture of irritation with the Nicosia government.
Seeking to pre-empt more far-reaching EU measures, the Greek Cypriot government on Monday proposed opening the EU market to mining materials and all agricultural and fisheries products from northern Cyprus, but not to goods with Turkish input. Nicosia also suggested increasing the number of crossing points on the "green line".