The General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL S.Stefanou at the Forum “Europe for the People” in Brussels

 

5 April 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, participated yesterday in the “Europe for the Peoples” Forum co-organised in Brussels by the Workers’ Party OF Belgium (PTB/PVDA), the Slovenian Levica Party, the Party of the European Left and AKEL.

The Forum was attended by dozens of parties from Europe, trade unionists, activists and scientists who discussed the socio-economic situation in the EU and the poverty affecting the European peoples, the international situation and security and finally the issue of climate change and the energy transition.

Stephanou was the keynote speaker on the Forum’s theme “Peace, Security and International Law” and referred to the 50-year-long Turkish occupation of Cyprus, as well as to the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region, where Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians and the war in Ukraine are raging.

More specifically, the General Secretary of AKEL stressed that the European Left must intensify its struggles so that Europe should be geopolitical power that promotes peace, cooperation and stability, serving principles and values, with a foreign policy based on International Law and the Charter of the United Nations, which has not been the case over the last two decades given that the EU is fully aligned with the policies pursued by the US and NATO.

This, the General Secretary of AKEL continued, is what is happening in Ukraine where the EU, instead of contributing towards putting an end of the conflict, is taking decisions that fuel it even further. S.Stefanou pointed out that while in the case of the war in Ukraine

the EU rightly demands that international law should prevail, it does not do the same in the case of the ongoing genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza, which will not stop unless the international community, including the EU, intervenes to implement the Resolutions of the UN.

S.Stefanou pointed out as a characteristic example of the double standards policies being pursued the fact that the EU has imposed 13 packages of sanctions on Russia, but not a single one in the case of Israel, nor has the EU suspended the Association Agreement with Israel, nor banned arms trade with Israel.

Similarly in the case of Turkey too, the General Secretary of AKEL noted in the same vein, the EU shows enormous tolerance for the violation of the resolutions of the United Nations on Cyprus, a member state that has been under Turkish occupation for fifty years. Such policies, S.Stefanou concluded, undermine the role and image of the EU in the modern world.

5.4.2024