Brussels, 24/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci respectively, will meet again on Monday 27 July to work on the resolution of the Cyprus conflict.
At the end of a meeting with members of the United Nations Security Council on 22 July, Espen Barth Eide, the special adviser of the UN secretary general for Cyprus, said that “concrete progress” had been made, but that there was still “much work to be done”. “There are several months of hard work, concessions, compromises and innovative approaches ahead of us”, he told press, stating that since the resumption of discussions on 15 May, the negotiators had met 25 times and the leaders six times. Eide said that the members of the Security Council considered there was no time to lose and that the momentum had to be maintained.
“What we are doing now is to try to come as far as we can towards a strategic understanding of all the difficult issues”, Eide said, stating that when they are approaching the end, the international dimensions of the resolution would be discussed even further and that this would include discussion with the guarantor powers. “This is already in preparation, and then at the right moment we will also make sure that those issues become part of what can be seen as a final solution. After that, if this works, referenda, and after the referenda, implementation”, he added. No timetable is planned for this - according to Eide it had been agreed not to have one as a timetable can be “stifling”.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini was in Cyprus on 24 July where she reiterated the EU's support for the negotiations. In her opinion, it is not “now or never” for an agreement, but rather “now, or with great, great difficulty in the future”. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)