Peter Stano: EU welcomes trilateral meeting on Cyprus

The EU welcomes the developments regarding the recent informal meeting between Cyprus President Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and UNSG Antonio Guterres, Commission spokesperson for external relations Peter Stano said during the European Commission’s midday briefing in Brussels on 16 October.

Stano said the EU will continue to support the UNSG’s efforts as well as “further UN facilitated exchanges and steps that should follow on this meeting”.

“For the European Union, Cyprus is one of the EU’s member states” Stano stressed, adding that “of course, we welcome this development and express full support to the efforts of the United Nations Secretary General in this regard, and we will continue supporting further UN facilitated exchanges and steps that should follow on this meeting”.

The Commission spokesperson repeated that “the position of the European Union is very clear on the issue of a Cyprus settlement."

EU leaders “have reiterated on several occasions that the European Union remains fully committed and supports the comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, and they also expressed and repeated the readiness of the European Union to play an active role in supporting all stages of this UN led process” he added.

Responding on how the EU could contribute to a restart to the dialogue, Stano pointed out that the EU is committed to supporting this process but added that “let's not forget, this is the UN led process”.

“So we will continue supporting all the activities by the UN Secretary General or in general UN-led activities that help bring us closer to solving this problem” he said.

The spokesperson said that the Cyprus issue is of “vital interest” for the EU as Cyprus is a member state. “We fully respect and fully support the ongoing UN-led process that hopefully will bring some results, hopefully very, very soon” he stressed.