AN E.U. proposal aimed at easing telephone communications between the two Cypriot communities has failed to materialise, apparently after the government insisted on a greater level of integration that would entail the north also using Cyprus’ +357 country code.
The initiative, sought by EU Ambassador to Cyprus Adriaan van der Meer, involved using a “neutral, local digital code” to allow local rate calls between the two sides of the island. At present, international codes have to be used by callers seeking to contact those on opposite sides of the Green Line, making connections difficult and costly.
“Mr Van der Meer held informal meetings with mobile phone companies on both sides of the Green Line to try and get an intermediate, temporary solution to the problem,” EU Representation press officer Klementini Diakomanoli told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
She added that all four mobile phone operators on the island – two in the north and two in the south – had given assurances they would be willing to sign a roaming agreement allowing Cypriots to communicate across the island without the need to make international-rate calls.
“All four of them promised informally to do this,” Diakomanoli said.
She said the EU had only received news of the Greek Cypriot side’s rejection through media reports at the weekend, and that “no formal rejection” had been received.
A CyTA spokesman confirmed to the Mail yesterday that it was the government that had blocked the deal by saying, “When we get the go-ahead from the government, we’ll do it. We don’t make political decisions; that is up to the government. But everything is ready as far as we are concerned”.
The spokesman reiterated the government line that the merging of the systems would only be carried out on the basis of the whole island using the +357 prefix for international calls.
A spokesman for the department of electronic communications backed the government decision and accused the Turkish Cypriot side of rejecting the Greek Cypriot insistence that the Cyprus code be used.
“The EU suggested the two sides sit together and find a solution. We suggested Cyprus be one integrated area as far as telecommunications were concerned. This was rejected by the Turkish side, so we did not meet,” he said
Turkish Cypriot communication and works ‘minister’ Omer Kalyoncu denied his side had blocked the EU initiative saying: “We repeated a proposal made before the April 24 referendum that the Greek Cypriot side assign a prefix code to the north. They have a number of unused codes they could easily assign to us, and we are a position to do the same for them”.
He added his view that changing the north’s international code was not a priority, and that such a move would be subject to a comprehensive solution to the island’s problem.
“At the moment, the need is for the people of Cyprus to be able to communicate with each other easily and cheaply. International calls are not a problem,” he said.
“They [the government] want the north to be accessed through their international code +357. We are not saying this should not be done, but we are saying the first priority is local communications”.
“Something like full integration of the telecom system depends on a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem,” he added.
