Roundup: UN official calls for money to be raised to finance Cyprus solution

"Real money" has to be raised to finance a solution of the Cyprus problem so that Cypriot taxpayers will not be burdened with a new memorandum to pay the cost, a UN official said on Saturday.

Espen Barth Eide, the UN Secretary General's special adviser on Cyprus problem, called for contributions to cover the cost of a solution, but said experts will work on the issue of financing it.

"It is very important that the needs for a solution will not be shouldered by Cypriot taxpayers," said Eide, a former Norwegian foreign minister.

His use of the term memorandum alludes to a 3-year economic adjustment program memorandum under which international lenders offered Cyprus a 10-billion-euro (10.9 billion U.S. dollars) bailout in March 2013.

Eide was evidently worried about the consequences of calling Cypriots to pay the cost.

A solution plan proposed by the UN in 2004 was rejected by Greek Cypriots who reacted to loose security arrangements and to a stipulation that they would be required to pay about 14 billion Cypriot pounds, almost 24 billion euros for the cost of the solution.

Eide told the Cyprus News Agency in an interview in New York on Saturday, after briefing the Security Council on the progress of the Cyprus negotiations, that the actual cost of a solution is not yet known as details of a solution have not yet been finalized.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have said they covered a lot of ground towards reunifying the eastern Mediterranean island.

But Anastasiades said that the solution is not just around the corner, as much of the optimism created by the UN and countries interested in promoting a settlement is aimed at keeping the momentum in the negotiations.

Akinci said during a recent joint press interview with Anastasiades that the cost of a solution could be 25 billion euros upwards.

"All numbers mentioned for the cost of a solution are wrong as no one knows yet the final arrangements of a solution, especially on the properties and territorial issues," said Eide.

Most of the money will be needed to pay compensation to thousands of property owners who were displaced when Turkish troops occupied the northern one third of Cyprus in 1974, driving out about 170,000 Greek Cypriots.

Turkey was reacting to a coup by officers of the military junta ruling Greece at the time.

Greek and Turkish Cypriot negotiators are striving to spell out the details of criteria to be applied in deciding whether owners will recover their properties, now occupied by Turkish Cypriots or Turkey settlers, or be compensated or receive other property.

Anastasiades and Akinci are scheduled to have a joint meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, to assess the state of negotiations and consider how to move forward. Endit