Roundup: EP President says reunification of Cyprus a realistic possibility

The President of the European Parliament (EP) Martin Schulz said on Tuesday that the reunification of Cyprus has become a realistic possibility no one could imagine of a few years back.

Schulz, on a three-day visit to Cyprus in a move of support for the ongoing negotiations under the United Nations auspices, told deputies at a special session of the Cypriot parliament that there is a historic opportunity which all should grasp.

The negotiations between Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have marked progress never achieved before in four decades of talks, but have lately come up against tensions between Cyprus and Turkey which underlined the urgency of a settlement.

Turkey, which occupied the northern part of the eastern Mediterranean island in 1974, in reaction to a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time, has disputed Cyprus' right to licence exploration for hydrocarbons in its continental shelf.

It also laid claim on part of Cyprus' continental shelf which was marked in cooperation with Egypt, under the United Nations Law of the Sea, which Turkey has not accepted.

Schulz urged the European Union to throw its weight behind a solution by coming out in support of the Cypriot population from day one of its reunification.

Schulz had earlier held talks with Anastasiades which centered on the ongoing negotiations and also on obstacles on the way to a solution, including Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus as an EU member state.

Cyprus has blocked five chapters of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union warning it would even block further progress unless Turkey makes moves to solve the Cyprus problem by withdrawing its occupation troops and ends intervention rights acquired under the 1960 pacts which led to the islands independence from British colonial rule. Endit