Brussels, 15/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 14 June, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to make progress towards the reunification of Cyprus. They hoped an agreement might come about before the end of the year.
“I strongly encourage the parties to make progress”, Ban said at a press conference with Juncker, adding that he would do his utmost to encourage the two leaders so that “this difficult process” might be concluded. “For many years, the leaders of the two communities have identified pending issues, which it was important to do. They have made some good progress, but they must make more. All pending issues are on the table. It's a matter of choice what kind of measures they would like”, he said.
Asked about the chances of having an agreement by the end of the year, Ban said that if the leaders of the two Cypriot communities “could take a good decision by the end of the year, it would be most, most welcome”. In Juncker's view, “this is the moment to bring this sometimes painful process to an end”. “My feeling is that the two leaders are doing their best to bring this process to an end”, he said, stating that he had met the chief negotiators and that he had been to Cyprus last year. Juncker strongly recommended the leaders to bring this settlement process to an end before Ban's mandate is over on 31 December. “That would be a marvellous farewell gift”, Juncker added.
Ban also underlined “the exemplary cooperation” between the EU and UN on the issue of the Cypriot settlement.
At the end of another meeting on 8 June, the leaders of the Greek Cypriot community, Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish Cypriot community, Mustafa Akinci, announced that they would step up their negotiations and meet twice a week from 17 June in order to work on resolving the pending issues in an agreed and structured way. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)