European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker has characterised Turkey’s demand to gain access to the four basic EU freedoms as “unacceptable” after meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades on Thursday.
He said: “The four freedoms are not a bilateral issue, they are an issue that involves the whole European Union…The demand is unacceptable.”
The Juncker-Anastasiades meeting lasted for 45 minutes and both exchanged their positions on the future of Europe, ahead of a European Council meeting to discuss Juncker’s “white paper” on the union’s future.
President Anastasiades also informed the EU Commission head on the latest developments in the Cyprus problem talks, including the Turkish Cypriot side’s abandonment of the negotiations.
He also expressed to Juncker he is ready to restart the negotiations.
“Hand in hand” with the negotiations
Juncker and Anastasiades also discussed Nicosia’s position that the Turkish Cypriot community needs to be harmonised with the Europe and that it is a process that should be carried out “hand in hand” with the negotiations, CNA learnt.
On Wednesday, President Anastasiades met with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.
After the meeting, government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides expressed “the President’s complete satisfaction for the meeting with Antonio Tajani, with whom President Anastasiades is connected with from the European People’s Party.”
CNA learnt that the President and Tajani discussed the agenda of the European Council meeting and especially the launch of a dialogue on the future of Europe, from which the union aims to emerge stronger. The two men had a detailed discussion about migration mostly affecting Europe’s southern countries.
According to CNA’s information, President Anastasiades informed Tajani in detail on the Cyprus issue, with particular emphasis on the question of the viability of a settlement, the chapter of security and guarantees, as well as the role of the EU in solving these issues.
CNA also learnt that Tajani believes that the EU itself could act as a safeguard for both the solution’s viability and the security of Cypriot people in their entirety.
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