Christofias and Talat: Europeans of the year?

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have been nominated with four other candidates for ‘European Man of the Year’.

The award is given annually by the newspaper European Voice. The nominees are chosen by European Voice senior editors, together with a strategically-selected panel of advisors drawn from the European Union community.

A list is collectively drawn up of the people to be honoured. Those nominated include commissioners, MEPs, heads of state, politicians, EU officials, representatives of businesses and NGOs, campaigners, and also European citizens.

Christofias and Talat have been nominated “for reviving hope of an end to the dispute over Cyprus”, according to the organisers. They are competing for the title against Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s energy minister – for committing Germany to cut 40 per cent of its emissions of carbon dioxide, beyond the EU targets for combatting climate change – and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for helping to broker a deal that put an end to the war between Russia and Georgia.

Boris Tadic, Serbia’s reformist president, has also been nominated for bringing his country closer to EU membership with the handing over of alleged war criminal Radovan Karadzic to the international court.

The final nominee in the category is Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister for re-establishing Poland’s position in the firmament of EU nations.

There are also a categories for’ EU Commissioner of the Year’, ‘ Member of the European Parliament of the Year’, ‘EU Official of the Year’, ‘Inspiration of the Year’ and ‘European of the Year’. No other Cypriots have been nominated in any of the categories.

Out of the nominees, seven will be chosen via a public vote, both online and by completing a ballot form in the newspaper.

The awards will be given during a gala evening at the Brussels Stock Exchange on December 2.

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.