Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs
on the 53rd EU – Turkey Association Council
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ioannis Kasoulides, who is
currently in Brussels to participate in the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC),
made the following statement on today’s 53 rd EU – Turkey Association
Council:
“I wish to brief you on the results of today’s EU – Turkey
Association Council, especially due to the fact that a significant preliminary
work was preceded by the Cyprus Representation, and all agreed were honored by
the Latvian Presidency of the EU.
Firstly, I would like to recall that, the references to a ‘deceased’
Republic of Cyprus caused disturbance last year with the issue of a document
from Turkey, at the end of the Association Council. The fact that the document
was released at the end of last year’s Association Council left no time to the
Greek Presidency to react, because of the lack of knowledge of its content. This
year, we insisted that the Joint Position of the EU members and the Position of
Turkey should be exchanged and, therefore, Turkey released in time a first
document towards all the member states. Following, this document was altered
today and last year’s two references to a ‘deceased’ Republic of Cyprus were
removed.
The Latvian Presidency, in the first part of the agenda, namely the
approval of the minutes of last year’s Council, made a Statement to be recorded.
The Statement of the Presidency was the reply of the EU to Turkey’s claim for a
‘deceased’ Republic of Cyprus, underlining that the Republic of Cyprus is the
only legal, recognized member state of the EU. Then, during the presentation of
the EU Joint Position, the Latvian Presidency reiterated the position regarding
the legal entity of the Republic of Cyprus, while the need was stressed for the
recognition of all member states, as an essential component of the accession
process, as provided by the Declaration of 21 September 2005.
The EU, also, referred to all Turkey’s obligations related to Cyprus,
for which, unfortunately, no essential progress was reported. Moreover, the
illegality of the Turkish activities within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone was
recorded, and the need to respect Cyprus’ sovereign rights on its territorial
water and its Exclusive Economic Zone was stressed.
Other issues were also noted, among which the comprehensive
implementation of the ECHR decisions, the effective implementation of the EU –
Turkey Readmission Agreement towards all the member states and the cooperation
of Turkey with the neighboring countries in relation to transboundary effects,
for example the production of nuclear energy in Akkuyu, a point also underlined
by Commissioner Hahn in his intervention. The need is also stressed for Turkey
to cooperate with the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus for the flight
safety, because of the operation of illegal Air Traffic centers, as well as the
abolition of discriminations in the e-visa issuing practice. Though, the most
important position of the EU is that Turkey is called upon to tangibly
demonstrate its support to the negotiations process for resolving the Cyprus
problem”.
