Cyprus President, Nikos Christodoulides, has expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the discussion on the EU Summit conclusions on the EU-Turkey relations, stressing that a “positive message” was sent to Ankara, and that whether this message translates into action “depends on progress on the Cyprus issue”. The statements were made upon the President’s arrival for the second day of the European Council summit in Brussels.
“I would like to express my particular satisfaction with the results of yesterday’s strategic discussion on Turkey,” Christodoulides said, adding that “from the very beginning we set a goal, the substantial interconnection of EU – Turkey relations with the Cyprus problem, and this clearly emerges from yesterday’s conclusions and the discussion that took place.”
“We consciously sent a positive message to Turkey last night”, he added, noting that “translating this message into concrete positive developments in EU – Turkey relations depends on the progress in the Cyprus issue”. Moreover, h
e referred to “a very important moment” given the efforts of the UN Secretary General to resume talks.
The President thanked the leaders who participated in the debate, referring particularly to the Greek Prime Minister, the French President, the German Chancellor, the Italian Prime Minister, the Dutch Prime Minister and the President of the Council and the President of the Commission, who “made this connection clear through their interventions” and acknowledged the “constructive role of the Republic of Cyprus” and that if Turkey wishes this positive message “to be translated into concrete positive actions”, it needs to “take the steps needed on the Cyprus problem”.
Asked whether some initiatives shall be expected from the EU institutions for progress to be made on EU – Turkey relations and for them to be linked with the Cyprus problem in practice, Christodoulides said that there is an initiative on the part of both the Council and the Commission.
“At the same time, in addition to Greece, since the Greek P
rime Minister is constantly raising the issue and he will have a meeting with the Turkish President,” he continued, “I want to highlight the intervention of the German Chancellor last night on the role he played in getting Turkey to accept the appointment of the Personal Envoy, but also the ongoing effort to get Turkey to respond to the Secretary-General’s calls for the resumption of the dialogue’.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Columbia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.
Middle East and Syria
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Referring to Wednesday night’s discussion on the situation in
the Middle East, the President noted that apart from the joint message of the 27 on the need to avoid a deterioration of the situation, “it was important that the positions of the Republic of Cyprus to review the status of specific areas of Syria were welcomed and supported by a significant number of states”.
According to Christodoulides, the countries that were positive to this were Denmark, Austria, Italy and Greece, while no one opposed to it.
“The institutions,” he added, acknowledge the “need after 14 years to review the status of certain areas, something which will have a substantial, positive impact on the migration issue.”
The President added that he briefed the leaders on his recent visit to Lebanon, while Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also briefed them on their upcoming joint visit they will pay to the country on May 2nd.
During the visit, he added, “at the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus, a specific package of financial support for Lebanon will be announced, both for the manage
ment of migration and for the country itself, which is facing multiple challenges”, something which as he said “will be another step in this holistic approach to tackle migration”.
Asked how the proposal to review the status of areas in Syria will proceed in practice, Christodoulides pointed out that “there is a Council decision that Syria in its whole is not a safe country” and recalled that what Cyprus suggests is the review of the status of “specific areas based on the conditions right now”.
He also noted that in his intervention he mentioned specific ways on how to kick off this cooperation, for example, with the UNHCR.
Citing an intervention by European Council President, Charles Michel, as well as a discussion between them, Christodoulides said that before the end of Michel’s mandate there is the possibility of ‘a meeting at the level of the European Council with all the states in the region’, specifically Arab states. He also recalled that Syria has rejoined the Arab League.
Competitiveness
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Commenting on the subject of the second day of the summit, the presentation of the report by Italian former Prime Minister Enrico Letta on the competitiveness of the single market, Christodoulides stressed that “it is important that we will finally discuss the issue of competitiveness” in which “as the European Union, we have to be honest, we have a lot to do taking into account who we have to compete with.”
“The competitiveness of the European Union is key to its future course,” he stressed, underlining that this discussion even touches on the big issue of strategic autonomy. The Letta report, he said, contains “important points that we must take into account”.
“We should as a European Union look again at all the procedures that we have on many issues, taking into account that as a Union we have so many regulations that actually discourage and do not help in the direction of competitiveness,’ he added.
He noted that in the discussion that has developed so far at COREPER, two groups of st
ates have emerged.
Source: Cyprus News Agency