ALL sides involved in the Cyprus talks in Switzerland were last night waiting for news from Brussels as key issues related to the talks shifted to the EU capital yesterday.
President Tassos Papadopoulos left Burgenstock for Brussels shortly after midday to attend the EU heads of government conference, which is also being attended by Turkish and Greek leaders. Cyprus was expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the meeting.
The Turkish side is seeking permanent derogations from the EU acquis in the Annan plan for a Cyprus settlement, and it is widely believed that Ankara is waiting for something from Brussels before the Burgenstock talks can go any further.
Serdar Denktash, the son of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who is representing the Turkish Cypriots in Switzerland along with ‘prime minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat, said yesterday his side was not expecting something “solid” out of the Brussels meeting – “but at least an indication,” he said.
Sources close to Serdar Denktash said that if the Turkish side did not get the derogations it wanted from Brussels, the Turkish Cypriot leadership would campaign for a ‘no’ to the Annan plan on its return to Cyprus.
The Greek Cypriot side will not accept any permanent derogations to the Annan plan, a Greek Cypriot official said yesterday.
Information out of Brussels last night said the Greek side wanted a reference to Cyprus, calling for all Cypriots to “enjoy the rights and benefits of EU accession”. However, diplomats there said EU partners were reluctant to go along with this because they did not want anything to upset the Burgenstock process.
In Switzerland, UN envoy Alvaro de Soto, who yesterday briefed the press for the first time since the second phase of the negotiations got under way on Tuesday, said the question of whether there would be derogations was under discussion. “There are some derogations foreseen under the plan,” he said.
He said the derogations related to questions of legal security, “on which certain concerns have been raised by Turkish side”.
“It has to do with ensuring that in accommodating the settlement, the EU does so in a way that is legally solid and firm and that will resist judicial challenge,” de Soto said. “It is a matter in which the EU has the central role to play. They have the last word. We are helping in the search for a solution to a genuine concern that has arisen,” he added.
Commenting on the negotiations, de Soto said the talks were proceeding at their own pace, “notwithstanding what you might be hearing from participants in the process”.
Apart from the issue of the EU derogations, the other topic that has taken prominence in Burgenstock is the so called four-party conference.
Under the New York agreement for the resumption of talks, Greece and Turkey were to be called if the two sides failed to agree in direct negotiations in Nicosia, which ended on Monday.
However, on Wednesday, when the Turkish and Greek Foreign Ministers arrived, the much-touted four-party meeting did not take place and speculation rose that the talks were on the verge of collapse.
The Greek Foreign Ministry announced they had agreed with their Turkish counterparts that such a meeting would be premature. The four delegations instead had an informal dinner on Wednesday night hosted by de Soto. Another such dinner is expected tonight when the parties return from Brussels.
The Turkish Cypriot side believes it is imperative that a formal four-party meeting take place. This was reconfirmed by Serdar Denktash yesterday.
“If we want to solve the problem it’s an absolute necessity to have a four party meeting,” Denktash said. “If not, then nothing will happen and we will just find in front of us a text that the two sides don’t agree with. Every side should contribute to a solution.”
However Greek Cypriot sources told the Cyprus Mail that neither Nicosia nor Athens wanted a formal four-party meeting.
De Soto said yesterday “there is no such thing scheduled now”.
“There may be four party meetings. I don’t rule it out, but it doesn’t mean the process is not continuing,” he said, adding that informal dinners were also a useful way to push the process ahead. De Soto said the New York agreement did not say “in so many words” that there would be formal meeting between the four parties.
A Greek Cypriot official said it was important De Soto had confirmed that there was no question of a four party meeting at the moment. “On the contrary, it means that the process is scheduled like the Secretary-general fixed it in New York that Greece and Turkey are here only to lend collaboration,” the official told the Mail.
“This is important for us because it was not in the agreement reached in New York.” He added that Athens agreed with this.
The UN has come in for criticism from the two sides over the past three days for the format under which the talks are being held. Both sides say the isolation of the mountain retreat is a form of psychological pressure by the UN in its eagerness to clinch a deal by March 31.
De Soto said yesterday the UN was not seeking a “minimal text” at the end of the Burgenstock process, but “agreement on a comprehensive settlement”.
“The real test of whether the process will be successful or not will be to see if it possible to have an agreed text rather than one finalised by the Secretary-general. I hope it is indeed possible to have such an agreed text,” he said.
“What you need here by the end of the month is not a minimum text. It just won’t do the trick. You need a comprehensive settlement that solves everything, and this is closer than it ever has been in the last 30 years. We are within striking distance.”
Neither did he rule out seeking signatures from the two sides, but on what he didn’t elaborate. “Perhaps… I just don’t want to rule out anything. This is a work in progress.”
The Greek Cypriot official said his delegation had no intention of signing anything unless it was a settlement that it was happy with.
De Soto said that even if there was no agreement between the two sides, they were both committed under the New York agreement to “taking whatever text is completed in these talks whether by the Secretary-general or otherwise to a referendum”. The separate referenda are slated for April 20, but de Soto said there would not be any problem if it slipped a few days in either direction.
“There is a firm commitment now to a procedure whose end result is referendum. That is a firm commitment and I’m sure all parties who were involved in making that commitment will honour it,” he said. “Now what the people are going to do and what political figures are going to do during the run up to the referendum is something over which we have no control and do not aspire to control.”
De Soto said UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan would be arriving in Burgenstock a few days before the end of the month, and would be staying until Tuesday.
“We are still hoping it will be possible for the parties to agree on a text. If not… well if it comes to that if comes to that,” he said.
Denktash junior said his assessment of the talks so far was not optimistic.
“My assessment continues to be pessimistic,” he said. “ I don’t believe we will be able to come to an agreement on the plan but I’m hoping at the end of the day I will prove myself wrong.”
