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Cypriot Deputy EU Affairs Minister Marilena Raouna has defended the appointment of European Commission Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto to serve as the EU Commission’s special representative for Cyprus, describing him as a “political personality” who will support the island’s reunification effort.
The occupying Turkish forces, the so called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” which is only recognized by Turkey, fiercely condemned the appointment on Monday, describing it as “entirely unacceptable”, but Raouna rejected the criticism.
“The Cyprus question is a European question, and reunifying the last divided member state of the European Union will not only be transformative for Cyprus,” she said on Euronews’ flagship morning programme, Europe Today. “It will also be transformative for the region of the Eastern Mediterranean.”
“(The effort) is not to take sides, but it is very much to support reunification, and everyone stands to benefit from that, including all Cypriots and EU-Turkey relations.”
In a statement published online, the occupying Turkish forces alleged the selection was made without obtaining approval from the Turkish Cypriot side and is a “provocative step” exposing the EU’s “biased stance” regarding Cyprus.
“It is evident that the European Union’s stance, aimed at reviving a defunct model, serves the policy of maintaining the status quo pursued by the Greek Cypriot side, which has rejected all settlement efforts to date,” the statement said.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek-backed coup triggered a Turkish military intervention.
The EU executive announced on Monday that Fitto would serve in the post, with the aim, according to Commission spokesperson Louise Bogey, of speaking with stakeholders and interlocutors, building trust and preparing for a potential resumption of reunification negotiations.
The aim is to find a “lasting solution” to the 52-year impasse within the framework established by the UN.
The spat comes at a sensitive time in EU-Turkey relations, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa joining Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a working dinner at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara last week.
In a statement posted after the meeting, von der Leyen said the partnership between Ankara and Brussels matters “more than ever”.
“We must also seize the renewed momentum to advance a settlement of the Cyprus issue through the UN-led process,” the commission president wrote on X.
The meeting between the three leaders was billed as a move to strengthen relations between Brussels and Ankara, and came off the back of a wider charm offensive from senior EU officials, led by the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Turkey has been an EU accession candidate country since 1999, but its membership bid has been frozen since 2018 due to rule of law and democratic backsliding concerns.