EU Cyprus envoy Fitto ‘encouraged’ by leaders’ meeting results

European Commission Cyprus problem envoy Raffaele Fitto on Tuesday said that the commission is “encouraged” by the results of Monday’s meeting of President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, in which they agreed to open two new crossing points and meet United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the coming weeks. “This is a good step forward in the discussions for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue. The European Union remains fully committed to the reunification of Cyprus in accordance with the relevant UN security council resolutions and in line with EU principles, values and legislation,” he said. The new crossing points will be opened south of the village of Louroujina, near Larnaca, and south of the village of Karavostasi, west of Lefka, while the two leaders also agreed to share “archival material” through the technical committee on cultural heritage. Additionally, the leaders agreed that the Imagine programme, the bicommunal education project which had been frozen since the Turkish Cypriot side withdrew from it in 2022, will relaunch under the supervision of the technical committee on education, and that a number of Maronite churches and an Armenian monastery will be restored. Fitto had told the European Parliament last month that “in further deepening the EU-Turkey cooperation, we attach particular importance to the resumption of the Cyprus settlement talks and Turkey’s constructive engagement in that regard”. “This is in the strategic interest of the EU and in line with the mandate we have from the European Council. We must not forget that the whole of the island of Cyprus is part of the EU and that Turkish Cypriots are EU citizens,” he said. He later said that “without a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue, it will be impossible to bring sustainable de-escalation in the eastern Mediterranean”.