Brussels, 10/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the five-point agreement reached at the weekend between the president of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, and the Turk Cypriot leader, Mezhmet Ali Talat (see EUROPE 9225). “I welcome the positive outcome of the mission of UN Undersecretary General Ibrahim Gambari to Cyprus”, Mr Rehn says in a press release. He sees the three meetings last week between the two Cypriot officials as “an encouraging signal that dialogue has a chance on the island and that there is a perspective of re-launching a new process towards reaching a comprehensive settlement under UN auspices”. At the weekend, the two men agreed between them that the status quo in Cyprus is unacceptable, that a solution to the Cyprus problem is both desirable and possible and should not be further delayed and finally that the unification of Cyprus should be based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation and political equality of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. They thus decided to create two technical committees to deal with day to day issues.
After further agreement on “substantive issues”, it is hoped these technical committees will be able to take up their work.