The London and Zurich Agreements (Greek: Turkish: Zurih v Londra Antla-malara) for the Constitution of Cyprus began with an agreement on 19 February 1959 at Lancaster House, London, between Turkey, Greece, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the Cypriot community (Mgr Makarios III for greek Cypriots and Dr. Fazel Kok for Turkish Cypriots). On this basis a constitution was drawn up in Zurich on 11 February 1959 and was agreed with two other pacts and guarantees. Switzerland has a trade agreement with the United Kingdom, which represents the vast majority of trade-related rights and obligations currently in force under bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU. The Swiss-UK trade agreement will enter into force on 1 January 2021 and will cover, among other things, reciprocal rights and obligations in the areas of free trade, public procurement, fraud, agriculture and customs. The full text of the Agreement and other related agreements are available on the website of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, where further information will also be published. The Constitution provided for by the agreements divided the Cypriot people into two communities, on the basis of ethnic origin. The president should be a Greek Cypriot, elected by the Greek Cypriots, and the vice-president a Turkish Cypriot elected by the Turkish Cypriots. The Vice-President was granted a final veto over the laws enacted by the House of Representatives and the decisions of the Council of Ministers, composed of ten ministers, three of whom are Turkish Cypriots and were appointed by the Vice-President. The London Agreement, formally called the Agreement on the Application of Article 65 of the Convention on European Patents and sometimes also the London Protocol, is a patent agreement concluded in London on 17 October 2000, which aims to reduce the translation costs of European patents granted under the European Patent Convention (ETC). [1] The London Agreement is an optional agreement between the Member States of the European Patent Organization[1] and has not changed any other language requirements for European patent applications prior to issuance. The UN Ombudsman on Cyprus, Dr Galo Plaza[1], called the 1960 Constitution, created by the Zurich and London Agreements, “constitutional weirdness” and that the difficulties of implementing the treaties signed on the basis of these agreements began almost immediately after independence. [2] With France having tabled its ratification instruments on 29 January 2008, the agreement came into force on 1 May 2008.
[2] This agreement was signed by ten countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. To enter into force, ratification instruments had to be tabled by at least eight countries, including at least France, Germany and the United Kingdom. So far, Monaco, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Denmark and France have tabled their ratification instruments on the London Agreement, while Slovenia, Iceland, Latvia and Croatia have tabled their accession instruments (accession will also be taken into account when the agreement enters into force). Sweden was ratified on 29 April 2008. [28] The agreement did not change other language provisions applicable prior to the issuance of a European patent, such as the obligation to translate claims of a European patent application “in both official languages of the European Patent Office, with a different language of procedure than the procedure”, after receiving notification of Rule 71 (3) CBE indicating that the EPO intends to do so to issue a European patent.