Cyprus-Forum.com

[joe]

Tassos: forget the ports offer today
By Jean Christou

PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos warned yesterday that if Turkey tried to dupe the EU during today’s summit by resubmitting its proposals on Cyprus, Nicosia would re-table its own demands.

Papadopoulos was speaking on his departure for Brussels to attend the two-day EU Heads of Government summit, which is expected to adopt the recommendations of the bloc’s foreign ministers reached on Monday.

Speculation was rife yesterday that Britain was urging Turkey to resubmit its proposal in writing to open one port and airport to Greek Cypriot traffic as a means of wriggling out of the recommended partial freeze in its accession.

On Monday the EU25 foreign ministers meeting decided to impose the measures on Ankara for its consistent failure to normalise relations with Cyprus under the customs union protocol.
The EU deemed Turkey’s offer of one port and airport in return for the opening of Famagusta port and Tymbou airport in the north as being inadequate to fulfil its EU obligations.

However information from Brussels suggested a renegotiation might be on the cards.

“We have no objection to re-negotiation of the conclusions, but our demands which were not met at the Council will also be resubmitted”, Papadopoulos told reporters yesterday.

Asked if it were possible that a renegotiation could happen, Papadopoulos said theoretically it was but it seldom happened where there was a unanimous decision by the foreign ministers meeting.

Commenting on the issue of direct trade between the north and the EU, Papadopoulos said next EU president Germany would begin work on the handling of Cypriots goods which come from the north.

“Our effort is to show that direct trade does not constitute an embargo or a blockading of Turkish Cypriots, because its contribution will be insignificant, bearing in mind the volume of the production in the occupied areas”, said Papadopoulos.

He said the Green Line regulation provided the facilities for Turkish Cypriots, “if they consider themselves under an embargo”, to export their goods through the legal ports of the Republic.