UN and EU optimistic on Cypriot unity

The UN and EU were optimistic today that talks this week on Cyprus could bring about an end to the island’s 30 year division in time for the reunited nation to enter the European Union on May 1.

“We are now closer than ever to finding a solution,” said Guenter Verheugen, the EU official overseeing the bloc’s expansion plans.

Alvaro de Soto, the head UN negotiator between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots said talks due to start on the island on Thursday could be “the endgame of this process at long last.”

Leaders of Cyprus’ partitioned Greek and Turkish communities signed up last week to a UN plan aimed at reunification before the island joins the European Union.

However De Soto recognised much work was still needed on the details of an accord which would be put to the vote in both sides of the island in April.

“We are looking forward to a very intense few weeks ahead of us,” he said in Brussels.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish invasion came in the wake of a failed coup backed by supporters of union with Greece.

Under EU membership plans, the Turkish Cypriots would be left out of the EU unless the island is reunited.

The UN plan calls for a single state with Greek and Turkish Cypriot federal regions linked through a central government.

De Soto said he was confident both communities would back the plan in the referendums saying it would be “very surprising at the very least, if not tragic,” were either side to vote against reunification.

Verheugen praised the “courageous” role of the Turkish government in supporting the reunification efforts, adding that its positive stance on Cyprus should help Turkey’s own bid to open membership talks with the EU next year.

He rejected a call from the leader of Germany’s conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel that Turkey should be granted a “privileged partnership” with the EU that stops short of full membership.

“It’s not very much what Mrs Merkel is offering Turkey,” Verheugen said, adding that EU governments had already decided that Turkey should be able to open talks if a report due out at the end of the year shows that it meets conditions on human rights and democracy.

Verheugen, who is due to fly to Cyprus Wednesday, said the EU was ready to help in any way with the talks and stressed that EU experts would help ensure that the reunited country would be able to meet the legal requirements for Union membership.

He repeated that the EU would make funds available in aid for the north of Cyprus after it joins the EU and organise a donor’s conference to raise more money.