Foreign Ministry looking at request to include Turkish Cypriot in delegation to EU Committee of Regions

THE Foreign Ministry said yesterday it was studying a request from the European committee of local and regional authorities to change the composition of the Cypriot delegation to include a Turkish Cypriot representative.

It is understood that the committee informed Cyprus’ representative in Strasburg about its decision on May 4, which goes along the lines of the April 29 Parliamentary Assembly resolution 1376.

Paragraph six of the resolution said: “The Assembly therefore decides to associate more closely elected representatives of the Turkish Cypriot community in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly and its committees, beyond the framework of Assembly Resolution 1113 (1997) and integrated to the Cypriot delegation”.

The Assembly initially attempted to include the Turkish Cypriots as a separate entity but that was changed after the intervention of the Greek Cypriot delegation.

The Cyprus Mail has learned that in its request to the Cyprus government the Committee of the Regions decided to follow a similar line to the Parliamentary Assembly.

A draft resolution will be submitted to the congress on May 24, asking them to change the composition of the delegation to include one Turkish Cypriot representative.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that the issue was under study.

“It is still under study but any actions will look to secure legality,” the spokesperson said.

But according to one politician, even if a way were to be agreed for Turkish Cypriots to participate, it would be unlikely for them to do so because, as in the case of Resolution 1376, “integrated to the Cypriot delegation” would mean recognising the Republic of Cyprus, and that is something the Turkish Cypriots do not want to do.

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