Statement by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A.Kyprianou on his contacts today in Brussels
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 26 June 2018, Nicosia
The General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou began his round of contacts today in Brussels within the framework of his visit to the European Parliament and European Commission.
Today, the General Secretary of AKEL had meetings with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini, the Co-president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament Ska Keller, the Head of the Socialist Group in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament Knut Fleckenstein and with the President of the Left Group in the European Parliament Gabrielle Zimmer.
In the afternoon, the General Secretary of AKEL will have meetings with the President of the Socialist Group Bullmann Udo and the Head of the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker’s Cabinet Clara Martinez Alberola and the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos.
There follows extracts from the statements made by the General Secretary of AKEL on his contacts:
“Our contacts in Brussels aim to call on European officials to encourage the immediate resumption of negotiations and to ensure that the solution of the Cyprus problem is based on the UN resolutions, the principles on which the European Union itself is founded on and the High-Level Agreements.
We had important meetings today, both in the European Commission, as well as in the European Parliament, the most important of which was with Federica Mogherini during which we had a very frank and productive discussion. We, on our part, explained that now that the elections in Turkey are over, it is imperative to resume negotiations as soon as possible on the Cyprus problem, which should be based on the principles as defined by the UN Secretary-General in successive Reports, negotiations that will aim at reaching an agreement as soon as possible. We have made it clear that the Treaty of Guarantee cannot continue within the framework of an agreement and we concluded with satisfaction that both Mogherini and the other interlocutors we met share these views.
We will continue our contacts and discussions in the afternoon and tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon we will have the debate on the Cyprus problem in the European Parliament.
We also had a meeting with the head of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee with whom we had a very interesting discussion. He himself will visit Cyprus in December. I have to say that he fully shares the positions we have put forth, namely that it is imperative to resume negotiations as soon as possible and he promised that he will try to help in this direction and that a member state of the European Union cannot within the framework of an agreement that will be concluded have guarantees by any third country.
Our own duty is to make every possible effort to take initiatives for the resumption of negotiations and for them to lead to a positive outcome. If this is not feasible, then the responsibilities should be apportioned exclusively on Turkey if we want to put an end to any negative plans against Cyprus. Mr. Anastasiades must understand this.”
