Cyprus commended for EU progress

CYPRUS is way out in front of all the other aspirant EU members, German Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for European Affairs Ginder Verhuegen, said on Monday.

Speaking during EU talks with Cyprus in Luxembourg on the sidelines of a session of the Council of European Affairs, the official described Cyprus’ accession course so far as “very positive”, seeing that negotiations on 10 out of the 14 chapters of the acquis communautairehave already been completed.

For his part, EU External Affairs Commissioner Hans van Den Broek said that since last year when negotiations began, no-one could have imagined the progress Cyprus had made.

He also commended the government’s efforts to involve the Turkish Cypriots in the accession process via the internet.

Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides thanked Germany for its work during its six month stint as EU president, which ends this month. He assured the meeting that Cyprus would do its best to continue making heady progress during the upcoming Finish presidency.

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.