EP Parliament Resolution on Turkey’s EU progress Report was formed with important amendments of GUE/NGL

Statement of Stavri Kalopsidiotou, member of the C.C. of AKEL and Cyprus problem Office of AKEL
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 14th March 2014, Nicosia

AKEL, maintaining its position of principle in favour of the continuation of Turkey’s accession course, tabled via the Political Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament a series of amendments designed to make the resolution more balanced and objective.
Unfortunately, political expediencies both of the Rapporteur and the other political groups, and especially of the European People’s Party, led to the rejection of very important amendments we had tabled, which if they had been approved would have permitted the passing of the resolution.
More specifically, our position that it is unacceptable for pressure – with the EPP Group at the head of these efforts – to be exerted on the Republic of Cyprus so that it agrees with the opening of the main chapters 15, 23 and 24 was rejected. The contrary should have occurred, namely that Turkey should be called upon to recognize the Republic of Cyprus and cease hindering the exercise of its relevant sovereign rights. Regretfully there was a similar outcome to our amendment aimed at the parallel implementation of Resolution 550 (1984) for the operation of the port of Famagusta, instead of disconnecting them as two separate Confidence Building Measures, position that refers to “direct trade” with the occupied areas.
Furthermore, we also stress the fact that our amendment, which proposed expressing support of the UN Security Council resolutions – including the Resolution 1251 – underlining the importance of demilitarization within the context of an overall solution of the Cyprus problem, was rejected. We point out the negative position taken by the Democratic Rally MEP’s (Note: the
ruling government DISY party, EEP member). Both DISY MEP’s, namely Mr. Pitsillides, with his negative vote and Mrs. Theocharous with her abstention, as well as their political group as a whole, did not respect the official position of the National Council (Note: the advisory body to the President of the Republic on the Cyprus problem composed of all the parliamentary parties and former Presidents) for a solution that will provide for the demilitarization of Cyprus, which to our knowledge has not by no means changed.
For AKEL, demilitarization represents an indispensable element of a solution of the Cyprus problem. This is a message sent out to many recipients, both within Cyprus, but also abroad.
Nevertheless, we must stress the resonance our positions of principle tabled had among specific MEPs, which was far greater than the size of our own Group; the only political group in the European Parliament which demonstrated with a united will its full respect towards the long-standing positions of the Greek Cypriot side. In the majority of our amendments submitted, we secured the support of a third of the plenary body of the EP. As far as our amendment on the illegality of the colonization of the occupied areas is concerned, it was not approved by just 17 votes.
AKEL and the Political Group of the Left, proved again to be the only consistent agencies of our long-standing positions of principle on the Cyprus problem; a stance which we expected other political groups to have taken, especially as the discussion on the resolution coincided with a particularly crucial period of time, namely the resumption of the negotiating process