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1st LD Writethru: UN, EU officials agree on how to help reach Cyprus solution

Xinhua, July 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United Nations and the European Union (EU) agreed on ways to help Greek and Turkish Cypriots reach a solution to the decades' old Cyprus issue, a United Nations official said on Thursday.

United Nations emissary Espen Barth Eide said after a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that they had "a meeting of minds ... on how to support the Cypriots' quest for reunification."

This is the first time the EU has committed itself to actively working towards a Cyprus solution. Junker is on a two-day visit to the country.

A UN spokesman in Nicosia said Eide and Junkcer had "a very productive meeting."

"They discussed the European nature a solution must have which will be agreed upon and will have European values incorporated in a final agreement," the spokesman said.

Juncker has assumed the role of EU representative with a mission to facilitate negotiations between the two communities aimed at again bringing the two communities together.

The eastern Mediterranean island was partitioned in 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern part, reacting to a coup engineered by officers of the military junta which ruled Greece at the time.

The Cyprus problem has defied more than four decades of negotiations but hopes for a solution received a boost when Turkish Cypriots elected moderate politician Mustafa Akinci as their leader in a vote last April.

The Turkish side had, up to now, strongly resisted any involvement of the European Union in efforts to solve the problem and demanded permanent deviations from the European Acquis: the common rights and obligations binding together all European countries and citizens.

Junker met separately with President Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci.

Later they had a joint working lunch at a restaurant on the Green Line separating the Greek and Turkish Cypriots regions of Nicosia, which often serves as a neutral ground for similar events.

Junker will meet journalists later on Thursday at the Europa House in the Greek sector of the capital. Endit