Trade on the agenda again, as Tassos goes to Brussels

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s trade and aid package for the Turkish Cypriots will be discussed by President Tassos Papadopoulos and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn over a working breakfast in Brussels tomorrow.

The prospect of resuming the Cyprus peace process is also expected to be raised at the fist meeting between the two men, since Rehn only took up his duties in November.
Rehn has already met Mehmet Ali Talat, in what has been described as a “pre-election photo opportunity”, as the Commission was offering him its full support.

Sources told the Mail yesterday that the Commission package, stipulating for 259 million euros and direct trade with the north, is in the hands of the member states.
Nevertheless, the EU’s executive is determined to keep up pressure for its adoption; that’s why it referred to it in both the press release issued after the elections in the north and last week’s agreement on changes to the Green Line regulation for on-island trade.

Member states have also agreed on the aid, but Nicosia is refusing to accept direct trade, as it believes it will lead to de facto recognition of the occupied north. For its part, the Turkish Cypriot side is refusing the decoupling of the two regulations, and is backed by countries like Britain, who believe in the political message that direct trade sends out.

In the meantime the head of the Turkish Cypriot Task Force at the Commission, Leopold Maurer, is expected in Cyprus today.

The Commission says it is a technical visit, for a meeting with the so-called joint monitoring committee for the transition facility (examining funding, etc.) and UNOPS, which is in charge of implementing some EU-funded programmes.

However, according to sources, Maurer will also meet Talat, foreign ambassadors (US and UK), the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce and people responsible for missing persons. He will also visit Zodhia, where work is under way on opening a new crossing point, and meet the head of the President’s diplomatic office Tasos Tzionis.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.