The United Nations document containing the convergences and divergences of the last three years is not the basis for a new round of negotiations, President Anastasiades has said.
The President was responding to concerns expressed by the Greek Cypriot community in relation to the UN document.
The document was not submitted by the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, but it was given to him upon his request, President Anastasiades says.
He requested the document, he adds, not with the aim to use it as a basis for the resumption of the negotiations from the point at which they stopped.
It was requested with the aim of helping the Greek Cypriot side at the preparation stage, ahead of entering a negotiation process to know how to approach it. The document will show up any proposals the majority of the people and of the political leadership finds unacceptable.
Secondly, “my position is well known that despite my wish to recommence negotiations as soon as possible, this is impossible at present because I and my government are focusing on tackling the problems the financial crisis has accumulated,” President Anastasiades stresses.
This, he adds is being accepted by all parties involved, the United Nations included.
Thirdly, he says, it has been decided that the National Council would convene again on June 15 and during that meeting he will present in the context of his pre-election programme, comprehensive proposals as regards the new and upgraded role of the National Council, the appointment of a negotiator, the working groups and experts, the preparation of a proposals’ framework and the new process that should be agreed upon before any new round of negotiations starts.
