The United Nations is to formally remove the role of special adviser on Cyprus amid sweeping budget cuts.

The role was last held by Norwegian diplomat Espen Barth Eide, now the country’s foreign minister, between 2014 and 2017, with the UN having not since appointed a replacement after he resigned in August 2017, and negotiations having not resumed since they were abruptly cut off in Crans Montana a month prior.

UN sources explained to the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday that in the absence of a special adviser in recent years, the UN has instead elected to appoint a personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin, who serves in a similar role to that of a special adviser, but with a number of key differences.

Firstly, the sources said, a special adviser reports directly to the UN security council, and must as such adhere to the security council’s resolutions on Cyprus, with any talks on the Cyprus problem to be geared towards a bizonal, bicommunal federal solution with political equality between the two sides.

However, given that since Ersin Tatar was elected as Turkish Cypriot leader in 2020, he has refused to enter negotiations geared towards a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, the sources said, he has blocked the appointment of any new special adviser.

The sources said that as such, it was agreed that a personal envoy would instead be appointed, with a personal envoy reporting directly to the UN secretary-general of the day, and able to listen to Cypriot leaders who do not act within the previously agreed-upon bizonal, bicommunal, federal framework.

With the role of special adviser falling under the security council’s budget and the role of personal envoy falling under the secretary-general’s budget, the sources sought to clarify that Holguin’s role is not under threat in the current budget cuts.

Despite this, they said, it is expected that around 25 per cent of the UN’s budget is to be cut as part of its current budget, while more cuts are expected in the coming years.

However, they did note that in the event that the positions of the security council and Cyprus’ two sides do once again align and formal negotiations under the agreed upon framework do once again look likely, there is “nothing to stop them” from appointing a special adviser if the security council deems it necessary.

Both sides of Cyprus and the UN security council could hypothetically be in agreement regarding the framework of a solution to the Cyprus problem in as little as a month’s time, given the fact that a Turkish Cypriot leadership election is set to take place on October 19.

At that election, Tatar will be challenged by former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution.

However, to do so, he will likely have to convince Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said in his speech to the UN general assembly last week that a solution to the Cyprus problem “cannot be built on the federal model” – the model set out in UN resolutions.

This, Erdogan said, is because attempts to find a federal solution to the Cyprus problem have “failed due to the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot side”.