High-profile names from European and regional politics are expected to attend Wednesday’s opening ceremony of Cyprus’ six-month term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency, its spokeswoman Stella Michael said on Saturday, describing the ceremony as “emblematic”.

Among the attendees, she told the Cyprus News Agency, will be European Council president Antonio Costa, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, and Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.

She added that Gulf cooperation council secretary-general Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi and Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit will also be in attendance, alongside “delegations from other neighbouring countries”.

Of the ceremony itself, she said it will be an “emblematic event” and that it will come at the end of a “big day in terms of contacts”, which will see “several bilateral meetings in Nicosia with all the delegations which will be in the capital for the opening ceremony”.

She said the programme of bilateral meetings is “in the process of being determined”, and that after the conclusion of the opening ceremony, President Nikos Christodoulides will host an official banquet for the heads of the visiting delegations.

“One of the messages we are sending with the presences in Cyprus is how Cyprus can also function as a bridge between the European Union and the countries of the region,” she said.

As such, she added, Cyprus aims to use the opening ceremony to “highlight how the history of Cyprus goes from antiquity to the present day, through its culture and history”.

She added that it also wishes to exhibit the island’s “strong ties” with the EU, and how “this process has culminated through the accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004 and how it essentially moves within the united European family based on European principles and values”.

Daily rehearsals are currently being held for the opening ceremony, both by the artists and performers due to be taking part, and by others including the organisers and the police.

The ceremony will take place at the Cyprus theatre organisation (Thoc) on Nicosia’s Grigoris Afxentiou Avenue, with traffic in the area expected to be interrupted by the police from noon on Wednesday onwards.

Earlier in the week, Culture Deputy Minister Vasiliki Kassianidou had said that “over 100 Cypriot artists and cultural professionals” will take part in the opening ceremony, which has been given the title “memory – present – future”.

Meanwhile, European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna had said that undertaking the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency is “a moment of pride”.

“Cyprus will work as an honest and reliable mediator, representing all member states equally and seeking consensual solutions, in a particularly demanding geopolitical context,” she said.

She added that the government has “from the very beginning” approached the undertaking of the role “not simply as an institutional duty, but as a national mission and a strategic opportunity for the Republic of Cyprus to contribute substantially to the European project”.

Additionally, she said, the undertaking of the role offers Cyprus the chance “to upgrade its role, both within the union and internationally”.