Verschillende meningen parlementsleden over Turks-Cypriotische aanpak (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A body of MEPs created to strengthen relations with the Turkish-Cypriot community is "no longer the appropriate instrument for the European Parliament to effectively deal with the Cyprus issue", according to German Green MEP Cem Ozdemir.
In a letter to Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the European parliament, Mr Ozdemir says he will not participate in a delegation visit to Cyprus by the so-called "High-Level Contact Group for relations with the Turkish-Cypriot community in the Northern part of the island".
"The [group] has already travelled to Cyprus four times to meet roughly with the same people and say roughly the same things without any consequences following the conversations", he writes.
The parliamentarian also regrets that "no concrete steps have been taken so far in accordance to the requests made in the written report of the group".
In its report from February 2006, the eight-member group said that measures should be taken in order to "lift the isolation of the Turkish-Cypriot community", Mr Ozdemir highlights.
More specifically, the report said that "the Group considers that the acknowledgement of the Turkish language as an official language of the EU would greatly facilitate contacts with the Turkish Cypriot community".
It also noted that Turkish Cypriots would like "to be invited to send their own representatives to the European Parliament".
According to the German MEP, to accept Turkish as an official working language in the parliament would be "a good-will gesture towards the Turkish-Cypriot community" and to assure representation of Turkish Cypriots in the institution would only be fair as "it is undemocratic that six Greek Cypriots represent both communities of the island".
While the report's proposals are supported by Green, Liberal and Socialist MEPs, some other groups, such as the centre-right EPP, do not back them, a spokesperson for Mr Ozdemir said.
Consequently, "we would like to urge the Conference of presidents [of the political groups in the parliament] to do something" and hope to get some feedback by Mr Poettering, she added.
A limited mandate
The EPP that they are hindering the contacts with the Turkish Cypriot community however. "I wouldn't say our group was against the report. It is not as simple as that", said a party spokesperson.
"It was certainly never in the mandate of the contact group" to introduce the Turkish language in the European Parliament i or to invite Turkish representatives there, she stressed.
Under the mandate it was given, the group was asked to establish relations with Turkish Cypriots; to gather information on the region's political and economic situation; to ensure information on the EU would be passed on; and to monitor the implementation of financial and commercial measures proposed by the European Commission i.
Following a Turkish military invasion in 1974, Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a separate state in the north - the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - which is not recognised by the international community, except for Turkey.
Inviting Turkish representatives to the European parliament would be seen by some as problematic as it would imply recognising the existence of a Northern Cypriot parliament.
The MEPs' contact group's visit in Cyprus next week will be its fifth, and it will next hold a meeting on 15 November in Strasbourg.