Cyprus expects to join the Schengen area in full during 2027, Deputy Migration Minister Nikolas Ioannides said on Saturday.

Speaking to CyBC, Ioannides said the government expects to finish six outstanding actions by early next month.

It will then inform the European Commission that Cyprus is technically ready, opening the way to the next stages.

He said accession needs close cooperation with other member states and that bilateral contacts have begun, including with Luxembourg.

Once accession is complete, controls on internal borders involving Cyprus will be lifted and the necessary information systems will be fully operational.

The decision rests with the EU Council, and a new member needs the unanimous backing of the 25 member states already in Schengen.

Cyprus and Ireland are the only EU members outside the zone, and Ireland has chosen to stay out to protect its travel arrangement with the United Kingdom.

The main point of contention remains the Green Line, along which Cyprus has told the Commission it will not apply the zone’s new digital entry and exit system at the nine crossing points, as the demarcation is not recognised as a border, and the Republic holds sovereignty over the whole island even though EU law is suspended in the areas it does not control.

The issue such an arrangement would facilitate would be in the case where a non-EU national arrives in the government-controlled areas, leaves through the occupied north and later tries to enter another Schengen state, they would appear never to have left Cyprus.

Compromise ideas have been raised, such as border checks at Cypriot ports and airports in the style of Dover and St Pancras, or Frontex staff running Schengen controls so that passengers’ clear formalities before boarding flights and ferries to Europe.

Cyprus is also using an Austrian consultancy to assess privately how far it meets the technical requirements, a choice linked to Austria’s earlier resistance to Bulgarian and Romanian entry.