Brussels, 14/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Committee for a European Solution in Cyprus, supported by a panel of international experts (eight professors and academics of seven countries, invited by Greek EPP-ED MEPs Antonis Samaras and Yiannakis Matsis) unveiled its plan for a sustainable solution to the Cyprus issue to the European Parliament on Wednesday. Most of the experts are professors of international law. They criticised the Annan Plan for the reunification of Cyprus (rejected by 76% of Greek Cypriots in a referendum on 24 April 2004, but approved by 65% of Turkish Cypriots), saying it was inappropriate, destabilising and incompatible with international law. The Committee suggested an entirely different approach - rather than imposing a solution from the outside and from above, they suggest a bottom-up approach initiated, developed and decided by the Cypriot communities themselves. The various communities in Cyprus (Turkish, Greek, Armenian, etc) must have self-determination without any intervention from the outside, from Greece, Turkey, the UK or any other foreign power, the chair of the Committee, Aristos Doritis, told reporters. The key proposal is to hold a Constitutional Convention, whose members would come from across all Cypriot civil society and all Cypriot communities, to solve the problem of the division of the island through a new Constitution strictly conforming to European democratic values, international human rights and minority protection legislation and EU law. The Constitution would then be put to the Turkish and Greek Cypriot Communities in a referendum. The EU should provide support and its experience to ensure the Constitutional Convention is a success, suggest the Committee of experts. The Committee says its report, 'A principled basis for a just and lasting solution Cyprus settlement in the light of international and European law', has already been submitted to the 25 EU Member States and the European Commission and reactions, in general, have been positive, Doritis told reporters, admitting that most of those consulted had questions about the practicalities of implementation. The President of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, CDU MEP Elmar Brok, welcomed the Committee's work, hoping it would help find a fair solution to the Cyprus issue. The Vice-President of the same committee, Toomas Hendrik Ilves (PES, Estonia), said research of this nature was long overdue: 'Had we had this analysis before the Cyprus referendum, much of the misguided and misinformed rhetoric on the Cyprus issue would have been absent. As this report shows, what Cypriots were asked to vote on, runs in clear contradiction to international law.'
The expert report, A principled basis for a just and lasting solution Cyprus settlement in the light of international and European law, can be obtained from the Committee for a European Solution in Cyprus and can be accessed at http://www.eurokeys.com. (Info in Athens: +30 210 6754 676 e-mail: info@efc.org.gr)