EU ‘committed to supporting Cyprus on its journey towards reunification’

The European Union is “committed to supporting Cyprus on its journey towards reunification”, European parliament President Roberta Metsola said on Wednesday.

Addressing a European parliament debate on the Cyprus problem, she said the enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem which took place in Geneva last month “marked an important step towards the reunification of the island”.

“This parliament stands resolute in supporting the United Nations-led process, because we know that dialogue and diplomacy are the only path to a lasting solution,” she said.

She went on to call for those involved to “seize this momentum and transform opportunity into hope”.

“Europe will always stand with Cyprus as we seek paths forward. The road to reunification is not an easy one, but it is one that we will walk together – with patience, with persistence, and with an understanding that our generation can be the one to find a way forward,” she said.

Disy MEP Loucas Fourlas thanked Metsola for her statement, and said it comes at “another critical juncture for my country”.

“Today, as you said, a new effort to restart talks … is underway. An effort which should lead to a solution which will include the withdrawal of Turkish troops, the abolition of guarantees, and the creation of a European state, which will be based on European principles and values,” he said.

He added that to achieve this aim, “we demand more active European involvement in this process”, because Europe “is for us our only support and pillar of security”.

“A European Cyprus cannot be a hostage of Turkey,” he said.

Diko MEP Costas Mavrides was next to speak, saying he supports President Nikos Christodoulides “in his effort to withdraw the Turkish occupying forces, end the occupation, and resolve the Cyprus problem in accordance with the European acquis Communautaire and the principles and resolutions of the UN”.

He also criticised European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, saying that “instead of confronting Turkey, which occupies European Union territory in Cyprus, with the same vigour as they confront Russia, they are promoting it into Europe’s defence”.

“This is unacceptable and does not fool European citizens. The time has finally come to end neo-Ottoman Turkey’s accession process,” he said.

Greek MEP Afroditi Latinopoulou, who belongs to the far right “Patriots for Europe” group, was next to speak, and called for there to be no return to talks to resolve the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

“The failed proposal of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, which was rejected with a resounding ‘no’ by the Cypriot people in 2004, is coming back to the fore again in 2025 in an even worse form,” she began.

She then added, “why is there now an attempt to equate the president of the legitimate Republic of Cyprus with an installed puppet of Ankara?”

“The so-called confidence-building measures and the opening of crossing points have functioned as a trojan horse, giving economic breathing space to the Turkish occupation regime, while whetting the appetite of Turkey, which is now openly supporting a two-state solution.”

She closed her intervention by saying, “the EU will prove that it is a true union when the Cypriot and Greek flags look over Famagusta”.

Her intervention was followed by that of Elam MEP Geadis Geadi, who also condemned efforts to resume negotiations on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

“Instead of demanding an end to the occupation, we are compromising with the illegality and war crimes of the Turkish invasion. Why is the bizonal, bicommunal federation anything other than the transformation of the illegal de facto partition into a legal de jure partition of the island?

“And this is done while ignoring the will of the people who overwhelmingly rejected it in the 2004 referendum.”

Dutch Volt MEP Reinier van Landschot used his intervention to support the effort for more crossing points, saying, “along the 180-kilometre ceasefire line, there are only nine crossing points – can you imagine that?”

The final Cypriot to speak was Akel MEP Giorgos Georgiou, who said Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar “must abandon the idea of two states and sovereign equality”, and that “any concessions within the framework of relations between the EU and Turkey must be interconnected with a solution to the Cyprus problem”.