PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias has sent a letter to the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, calling on the Commission to withdraw a regulation on direct trade between the EU and the breakaway regime in the north of the island.
The call comes in the wake of a decision by the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee questioning the legal basis on which the Commission had proposed direct trade between the EU and the occupied areas.
That decision coincided with the position of the Cyprus government that the occupied territories cannot be regarded as a third country with which EU members can trade since they are considered part of the Republic of Cyprus under the island’s treaty of accession.
In the letter to Barroso, Christofias noted that the proposed regulation “puts at risk” the prospects of reaching a swift comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem.
He pointed out also that withdrawing the proposal would allow the island’s two communities to continue their efforts, through direct negotiations, to reach a solution.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told newsmen the letter to Barroso was a follow-up to a previous letter Christofias had sent to the EU official with regard to the regulation on direct trade.
In that letter, Christofias had stressed that the Republic of Cyprus would defend its legal interests with all available, political and legal means.
Asked to comment on the reaction of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the decision of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee, Stefanou reiterated that Turkey should fulfil its obligations to the EU.
Erdgan said Wednesday that Turkey would not fulfil the Ankara Protocol unless the ports in the occupied areas did not open for direct trade with the EU.
It was unreasonable for Turkey to introduce new conditions in order to meet its own obligations, said Stefanou, adding that Ankara should implement those obligations, one of which is to open its ports and airports to the Republic of Cyprus, a member state of the EU.
On whether the government expected Turkey to make a goodwill gesture by December, such as opening one of its ports, Stefanou noted that in the past similar expectations had been dashed.
“If Turkey wishes to make a goodwill gesture, which in fact will not be a gesture but the implementation of its obligation towards the EU, it could fulfil its obligations towards the Republic of Cyprus. Something that Turkey has not done so far”, he said.
