Akel seeks to know more on EU involvement in Cyprus problem

Opposition party Akel is expecting to be updated by President Nikos Christodoulides on his proposal regarding the EU’s more active participation in the Cyprus problem.

“We are very close to the final partition,” said Akel’s general secretary Stephanos Stephanou during his speech in London on the anniversary of the party’s UK branch on Thursday evening.

He reiterated the party’s criticism regarding the establishment of a joint coordination body that will allow the cabinets of Cyprus and Greece to meet and brief each other.

“Politically it is wrong and detrimental to both our struggle and to the messages it sends internationally,” he said, explaining that efforts should focus on promoting a bicommunal federation.

“While we are fighting to transform the unitary bicommunal state into a bizonal, bicommunal federal state, we should support and promote the existence of the Republic of Cyprus, which Turkey is challenging and trying to erase,” Stephanou said.

“We must not take actions that send different messages from those we should normally send”.

Commenting on Christodoulides’ references to a more active EU involvement in the Cyprus problem, the Akel Secretary General said he asked for an update on his planning. The President responded by promising to convene a National Council after his trip to Brussels.

Stephanou warned that “we are very close to the final partition”, noting how the “passive” stance should be abandoned.

Instead, specific initiatives should be taken to reactivate the interest of the international actor and especially the United Nations so that UN Secretary General Guterres can take a new initiative to resume the negotiations that were interrupted in Crans-Montana in 2017.

“For us, there is no other way and no other path to pursue than the continuation of the negotiations beyond what the UN Secretary General and the UNSC have been saying for four consecutive years,” the Akel Secretary General said.

“Cyprus has a need for progressive change, which was attempted to be achieved with the candidacy of Andreas Mavroyiannis in the presidential elections.”

On the anniversary of the founding of the British branch of AKEL, Stephanou said its history should be praised for the contribution to political and electoral struggles, as well as for the expatriate movement and the rapprochement with Turkish Cypriots in Britain.