Fins voorzitterschap tevreden met inzet van de VN om de eenwording op Cyprus te bevorderen (en)

Press release 480/2006

22 November, 2006

"The Finnish EU Presidency welcomes the positive replies from the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Communities to the proposals suggested by UN Under-Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari in his letter of 16 November", says Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja.

"We look forward to the early start of the work of the bi-communal technical committees and the expert bi-communal working groups on substantive issues. It is important that this work proceeds quickly to prepare the ground for the resumption of talks on a comprehensive settlement. The European Union stands ready to give its full support to this bi-communal work as well as to the parallel work on confidence-building measures under the auspices of the United Nations."

"These positive replies from the two leaders are encouraging also as regards the Finnish EU Presidency's on-going talks which aim at finding a solution that would enable the uninterrupted continuation of Turkey's EU accession negotiations and improve the situation of both communities in Cyprus. Successful conclusion of our talks would be a major positive step forward in support of the bi-communal talks and the UN efforts towards comprehensive settlement."