House president Annita Demetriou met with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Tuesday morning, expressing her appreciation for Metsola’s consistent support on the Cyprus issue.
“Metsola always remembers Cyprus – that we still have the Cyprus problem, the ongoing occupation – and that means a lot to the Cypriot people,” Demetriou said.
Calling Metsola “a true friend of legality and international law”, Demetriou stressed that “in solidarity we can face all challenges and problems.”
“Cyprus stands beside you, beside the European Parliament. We need to protect our democracies, protect the European Parliament, protect the European perspective,” she added.
Metsola said Cyprus was assuming the EU presidency at a “very pivotal and challenging time”.
“And we look forward to this island’s leadership, whether it is on security, defence, climate policy, digital simplification, things that our citizens have asked us to deal with, housing, specific, tangible challenges that the European Union can help with,” she said.
Metsola described her meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides on Monday and with parliamentary parties on Tuesday as “excellent”, adding that Cyprus had become “her second home” due to her frequent visits.
Her visit began on Monday evening with the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament.
She and her delegation were scheduled to depart on Tuesday noon.
In August, Demetriou had written to Metsola regarding the arrest and detention of five Greek Cypriots in the north — three of whom have since been released.
Expressing her “outrage and indignation”, she described the north as an “illegal regime subordinate to Turkey” and called the arrests “a clearly premeditated political act of retaliation for the lawful prosecution by the Republic of Cyprus.”
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