EU hopes for Turkish change of heart

By Andrew Adamides

THE EUROPEAN Union hopes the Turkish Cypriots will have a change of heart about their participation in Cyprus’ negotiations, but will negotiate only with official states, Nikolaus Van Der Pas, Director General of the European Commission’s Task Force for the accession negotiations, said yesterday.

Speaking after he and EU Task Force Negotiator for Cyprus Leopold Maurer met with President Glafcos Clerides, Van Der Pas said there was nothing to be added to Clerides’ proposal for Turkish Cypriot participation and that the offer remained on the table.

Cyprus’ accession should, he added, benefit both communities and contribute to a solution to the Cyprus problem.

He assured that the EU would prepare all negotiations in such a way as to contribute positively to the situation, but warned there were “very strict limits to what we can do”.

Van Der Pas added that interference in settlement talks at this stage would be “counter-productive”, as “so many eminent people are trying to find a solution.”

Later, the two met with House president Spyros Kyprianou and then with George Vassiliou, head of the Cyprus negotiating team.

After the meting with Vassiliou, Van Der Pas said Cyprus’ negotiations would soon move on to the difficult issue of the free movement of goods.

This area would, he said, pose some difficulties for all the applicant countries, and not just Cyprus. But the EU official added that he had “the impression that Cyprus is determined to make quick progress”.

He went on to say that other difficult issues to be discussed included agriculture and the environment.

For his part, Vassiliou said the meeting had provided a good opportunity to look at some of the practical issues concerning Cyprus’ EU accession.

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.