CBMs will improve daily lives, but ‘main issue’ remains talks

 

The National Council will meet on Friday when President Nicos Anastasiades will brief party leaders on his latest meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, but despite the two leaders’ agreeing to confidence-building measures (CBMs), the focus remains the resumption of talks, the Greek Cypriot side said on Wednesday.

Government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou told reporters that the position of the Greek Cypriot side was to agree to the terms of reference for new talks as soon as possible.

The leaders agreed on Tuesday at their informal meeting to link the two sides’ mobile telephony networks through an outside hub – a CBM decided in 2015 but never implemented – integration of the electricity grid, which was completed almost two years ago, an exchange of cultural material, and additional mine clearance. Anastasiades also raised his proposal for a more decentralised federal government.

“We consider the meeting itself as a positive development. Even if it was an informal encounter and not part of the negotiations, this does not mean it was not useful,” Prodromou said.

He said it was also positive that some CBMs were announced “particularly measures relating to broader society and people’s daily lives, such as the telephone interface and the permanence of the interconnection of the electricity network”.

“Of course, these CBMs in no way replace the main issue which is currently the resumption of negotiations,” he added.

Prodromou said he wanted to make it clear that the Greek Cypriot side opposed the prevailing view that new talks would not happen before June but the “objective data is such that it appears this is the timeframe that will be followed”.

Responding to questions that political parties had accused Anastasiades of telling Akinci more about his decentralisation proposal than he had told the National Council, Prodromou said that was not true and that the parties had previously been asked for input on the issue.

Akinci did allude to a lack of information on what the president means by a more decentralised federation after Tuesday’s meeting.

Anastasiades had talked about which of the competencies should remain with the central government but refrained from going into details over which ones could be transferred to the constituent states, the Turkish Cypriot leader said.

He said that both sides had maintained their positions on the issues of political equality and effective participation in decision making.

“I wish to underline the fact that no matter how limited the competencies of the central government, there will be no doubt some and those powers will be exercised jointly. And this brings political equality and effective participation with it,” Akinci said.

 

 

 

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