Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou has dismissed a report by the British newspaper The Independent, insisting the framework for any new Cyprus settlement plan remains federal, with no question of seeking a middle ground between federation and a two-state solution.
Menelaou’s comments on Sigma television came after The Independent reported on a possible solution that Greek Cypriots could call a federation and Turkish Cypriots could call a confederation.
Asked to comment on the British report, Menelaou recalled that the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy herself had stressed that reports circulating in the press did not reflect reality.
He said the framework for any potential solution remains the agreed one, meaning a federal settlement. “There’s no question of drifting toward” a middle ground between federation and a two-state solution, he added.
He said the outcome would be a single state, with one sovereignty, one citizenship and one international personality, in which the European acquis would apply fully across its entire territory. Cypriot citizens would enjoy all the freedoms enjoyed by citizens of EU member states, he said.
Menelaou also said the convergences reached in 2017 on federal competences, along with the full acquis of that negotiating process, needed to be reaffirmed.
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