President Nicos Anastasiades, was meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday night ahead of a crucial summit on Thursday that places Cyprus at centre stage in the EU’s effort to reach a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migration to Europe.
The Brussels meeting comes a day after a visit to Nicosia by European Council President Donald Tusk who went on to Ankara for a meeting the same day with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Anastasiades reiterated on Wednesday that he planned to stick to his position vis a vis Turkey and the EU. Responding to a comment by Davutoglu that Ankara would insist on chapters being opened as part of the migration deal, Anastasiades said Nicosia had its own positions it would insist on.
“As long as they [Turkey]do not meet their obligations, deriving from the Ankara Protocol, and more generally from the negotiating framework, there is no issue of opening negotiating chapters,” Anastasiades said.
Earlier in the day, Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said Turkey, during last week’s summit had attempted to circumvent EU institutions “and unfortunately with the help of some Member States” attempted to come to an agreement bilaterally with Germany and the Netherlands, bypassing all other Member States and even Tusk himself. He was referring to the leaders of Germany and the Netherlands who spent six hours meeting with Davutoglu the night before the summit where Ankara’s demands were spelled out.
Tusk was only informed later by the Dutch presidency.
“There was a request through Turkey to open of five chapters in the accession process,” Christodoulides told CyBC. Five of the six chapters had been frozen by Cyprus.
He said Anastasiades had sought a meeting with Juncker ahead of the Council meeting on Thursday. On the agenda was Turkey’s demands and the state of affairs with regard to the Cyprus negotiations.
“Our position is well known, is clear and understood by our partners in the EU,” the spokesman said.
Asked to comment on various reports relating to the opening of Turkish ports and airports in return for Cyprus allowing the opening of a chapter, Christoulides said he was aware of the reports but repeated that the only way for Turkey to move forward with its accession was to fulfill its obligations to Cyprus under the Ankara protocol, which involves normalising relations with the Republic of Cyprus.
