EU wants a swift solution on Cyprus
After enthusiastically endorsing Cyprus’s accession to the European Union on Thursday, EU enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen sounded a note of caution yesterday, saying that the unresolved conflict still posed risks. «I do not believe that the accession of Cyprus will be a threat to security and stability in the area…(but) a settlement is the preferred option, because the Cyprus conflict is still dangerous. We should not underestimate the potential danger of that conflict,» he said. Verheugen, on the second day of his visit to Athens, repeated that a solution to the Cyprus issue was «not a precondition» for EU accession. Accession talks are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Turkey has occupied the northern third of Cyprus since 1974. In the divided Cypriot capital of Nicosia, the leaders of the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities met yesterday for the sixth time since the start of the year. The talks between Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash are supervised by UN representative Alvaro de Soto. Denktash yesterday dismissed the notion that little progress has been achieved. «It would be incorrect to place a deadline on the talks process,» he said after yesterday’s meeting. Denktash reiterated his position that admitting Cyprus to the EU without a solution to the conflict would provoke a crisis but avoided repeating past statements about Turkey annexing the occupied part of the island.
