Cyprus-Forum.com

[Hermes]

Don't know how Turkey will react. This certainly wasn't their "plan B"...

ALDE: Let EU solve Cyprus matter if UN fails again

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe (ALDE) at the European Parliament, has [proposed] that the EU could take over the reunification negotiations between Cyprus’ Turkish and Greek communities if UN-backed talks result in failure yet another time.

Verhofstadt’s words came as a hint that the European Parliament did not have high hopes for a positive outcome from the UN-led negotiation talks, and that the EU is ready to rise to the occasion if the parties agree to bring the Cyprus issue to the European table. “It is clear that if the UN negotiations fail again, the EU will have to take over its responsibilities,” said Verhofstadt, advocating a “Europeanization” of the Cyprus matter, since the UN has tried once before to bring the two sides to reconciliation, under the auspices of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan, but without much success.

“Everyone knows that these talks [the UN-led negotiations] are going nowhere,” Verhofstadt suggested, and added that “other mechanisms and new scenarios” are needed to solve the Cyprus problem -- a suggestion that involves the EU as a soft power that can mobilize economic instruments to pressure the sides into consensus. Although Verhofstadt suggested that a solution might be devised outside the UN, he also noted that the EU respected and fully supported the UN-led process, and would wait for the end of the goodwill initiative before offering a helping hand.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-259591- ... again.html?

One question to Mr. Verhofstadt: how about a solution based on EU law and principles? That might work...

[Nikitas]

"economic instruments to pressure the sides into consensus"

If Cyprus finds gas what form will these economic pressures take?

This dude is a joke. He does not mention dealing with Turkish threats anywhere in his learned observations.

[B25]

Firstly, the EU should have taken up this job the moment Cyprus joined the club, period.

Then they should have been exerting pressure, economical or otherwise on Turkey since then and even more so with the recent threats to a fellow EU member.

EU, full of shit, honestly, these guys are just on the gravey train trying to justify their existance.

Turkey has been conning and extorting the EU for ages and they are too stupid to see that, then all of a sudden they want to take a more active role. Would they be saying the same if the gas/oil was not drilled for?????

[Hermes]

A couple of things spring to mind from this article. Firstly, this Dutch politician seems unaware that EU involvement and the application of the EU acquis to a solution is something his friends, the Turks, have been keen to avoid.

Secondly, economic pressure, whatever that means, is hardly going to convince the RoC to renounce its rights over the island. Besides, as Nikitas points out, the RoC's potential gas wealth would make it more likely that the RoC would be in a position to dictate its terms for a solution to the EU, not the other way around.

If this politician is so keen to further Turkey's EU ambitions he'd be better off telling Turkey to stick to the obligations it has made to the EU. This is where EU involvement has been so inept so far.

[Maximus]

Bagis said something along these lines that the EU will slip over on the Cyprus problem like a banana skin on the floor.

Have the Turks not been telling the EU that they are to blame for not resolving the Cyprus problem in one way or another?

Well, how can they object to the EU stepping in and 'solving it'. This is a good thing for Cyprus and ALL diplomatic options must be exhausted.

[kurupetos]

EU w*nkers can go f*ck themselves. We don't need them. WMD R&D NOW!