Date of release : 12-05-2005

Policy area : General Affairs and External Relations

On 12 and 13 May, the Minister Delegate for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Nicolas Schmit, and the Commissioner responsible for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, paid a joint working visit to Cyprus.

Throughout the day on 12 May, Nicolas Schmit and Olli Rehn held talks with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Georges Iacovou, the President of the House of Representatives Dimitris Christofias, and the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community, Mehmet Ali Talat. The Minister and the Commissioner also met the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Cyprus, Zbigniew Wlosowicz. At the end of this meeting, the delegation visited the buffer zone accompanied by officers from the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.

During the joint press conference held in the UN offices in Cyprus, Nicolas Schmit declared that the Presidency had visited Cyprus "to further contacts and dialogue in order to prepare for the reconciliation on the island. The Presidency is committed to making a renewed effort towards adopting the twin rulings on financial aid and direct trading. We shall do everything in our power to find a balanced solution for the two communities. It is time we re-opened dialogue. To this end, we need to inject a spirit of compromise into ongoing discussions and negotiations. This spirit of compromise forms the basis of the entire European project."