Christodoulides Asks for Clarity on Britain's Future Status

  The position of the Republic of Cyprus on the EU Summit taking place on June 28 in Brussels is that there should be absolute clarity on the state of affairs with Britain and on future step decisions on Britain, the Government Spokesperson Nikos Christodoulides said on the sidelines of the 28 leaders Summit in Brussels, the Cyprus News Agency reports.

The Spokesperson said that "there is a decision of the British people, with which we disagree as it is not something we wanted, but it is clear and it has to be fully respected. Beyond that, during tonight`s dinner all the heads of state and government expect to hear from Cameron how to proceed with the decision of the British people”.

He went on to add that “there must be clarity; there should not be any legal vacuum, in order to proceed. Beyond that, the European Union continues its course and I think that both sides, the UK and the EU, wish to have a close relationship, which will be seen through the transformation of Britain`s status as a member state in the new relationship to be created. The position of the Republic of Cyprus is seen in this context. Under that, there should be absolute clarity, a clear state of affairs and we will decide how to proceed to the next step."

Invited to comment on the status and future of Cyprus - UK bilateral relations, the Spokesperson explained that "there are excellent bilateral relations with Britain, at the moment there is the common property as members of the commonwealth, so we will see on the one hand the context of relations with the EU and on the other the commonwealth, so as to safeguarded and enhance even more the excellent relations to the benefit of both countries, and the two countries` peoples.”

Concerning the remaining points of the normal Summit agenda Nikos Christodoulides stressed that we should "realize that there are very important issues for the Republic of Cyprus, as the immigration, the common market, the EU and NATO relations, which is something that directly interests Nicosia, but you do realize that the decision of the British people to exit EU will prevail all discussions.”

As far as it concerns the meeting of President Anastasiades with Mateo Renzi, the Italian Prime Minister, Nikos Christodoulides referred to Renzi`s interest in the next step of the public procurement on energy and a possible future exchange of visits.

"It was an excellent meeting," he said, "held at the request of the Italian Prime Minister. Certainly the issue of Brexit dominated the discussions. In the new situation that is being shaped, Italy would like to play a greater role, so there was an exchange of views on how we proceed”.

It is important, Christodoulides said, “on the one hand what I have previously mentioned, to have this legal clarity about the intentions of the British people and on the other hand to see how the EU, through an open and frank discussion, will face the situation created and at the same time how it will advance in its next steps”.

Also, he added, “the energy issues were discussed as it is already known that there is a strong interest in Italy for the third licensing round. The Italian Prime Minister asked to be informed about the energy plans of the Republic of Cyprus, while there was a discussion about the exchange of visits between the President and the Italian Prime Minister.”

Finally, Christodoulides gave a readout of the President`s phone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahou.

"Early this morning the Israeli Prime Minister contacted the President to inform him about the agreement reached with Turkey on the normalization of their relations,” he said.

He added that “it was clear that any normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel is not in any way affecting the strategic relationship between Cyprus and Israel and even expressed the intention of both leaders to further strengthen this cooperation”.

Finally, Christodoulides said that the President “expressed his appreciation and thanks to the initiative of Netanyahou to inform him, and expressed at the same time the belief that the Cyprus issue resolution can enable the energy cooperation with Turkey, the participation of Turkey in the energy dialogue in the area, since as we all realize, without solving the Cyprus such a thing cannot exist. Let me add, finally, that the President thanked the Prime Minister for the immediate response to the fires that we had in Cyprus. "