Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, gave the Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, assurance of his support, when addressing a bilateral meeting mainly devoted to the island's economic situation on Wednesday 26 June. According to a Cypriot source, Van Rompuy pledged to “do everything in his power to help Cyprus” within the framework of the current aid plan, but “promised nothing new”. One course of action explored would be the immediate granting of part of the cohesion funds for the period 2014-2020. In April, the Commission had envisaged studying with the budgetary authorities the possibility of advancing future assistance for Cyprus under the budget for the next programming period (see EUROPE 10828). In an interview with Der Spiegel on Thursday 27 June, Anastasiades nonetheless spoke of the letter received last week from Van Rompuy promising to bring up the case of Cyprus during the summit. Last Friday, circles close to the president of the European Council denied the existence of any such letter and assured that Cyprus would not appear on the summit agenda (see EUROPE 10872). On Thursday 27 June, there was no communication on the bilateral meeting. The same day, Nicosia launched a process for the voluntary exchange of €1billion in sovereign bonds that reach maturity between now and 2016, for new bonds with the same coupon rates and 5-10 year maturities. The initiative was hailed by the “troika” (European Commission, ECB, IMF). (EL/transl.jl)