GREECE said yesterday it was ready to support UN talks on Cyprus continuing after the possible acceptance of the island’s candidacy to the European Union in December.
Cyprus is a frontrunner for EU accession when the 15-nation bloc meets to decide in December on its new members.
“We will continue our efforts (for a settlement) even after December,” Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis told reporters.
“If there’s the political will from the two sides, then even after December there’s still time to find a solution until the final entry procedures for Cyprus,” he said.
Talks between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities that started in January have failed to make progress, despite an initial June deadline for a result.
The United Nations is expected to submit a peace plan to aid the troubled reunification talks after new high-level consultations in New York next month.
Beglitis said the UN’s special Cyprus envoy Alvaro de Soto would meet Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou on Monday, ahead of October’s New York meeting.
The European Union is likely to sign the accession agreement with the first wave of new members, including Cyprus, during the Greek EU presidency in the first half of 2003 for formal entry probably in 2004.
“The timetable (for a settlement) existed for June, but today the realistic approach forces us to look at the talks not within a timeframe but until the very last deadline,” Beglitis said.
The European Union has said a solution to the Cyprus dispute is not a pre-condition for accession. Turkey has warned it will annex the north if a divided Cyprus is admitted. (R)
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.
