Annita Demetriou in Athens: “full convergence of views” with Gerapetritis on Cyprus and Libya

The President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus, Annita Demetriou, had an intensive schedule in Athens on Friday, October 23, with four meetings in one day: with Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Tasos Chatzivasileiou and Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou. The common denominator of all of them was the attitude toward Turkey.

At the Foreign Ministry the two sides discussed bilateral relations, the Cyprus problem and regional developments, with particular emphasis on Libya. They noted a “full convergence of views”, as the Greek Foreign Ministry stated, which also issued an announcement on the meeting.

Demetriou wrote that with Gerapetritis they examined the risk of further destabilising the Eastern Mediterranean through the “illegal moves of Turkey and Libya”, and agreed on the need to strengthen trilateral and regional alliances. She called for a common strategy and a common foreign-policy framework to overcome Turkish intransigence on the Cyprus problem and on the electricity interconnection project. She also briefed the Greek minister on the unanimous resolution of the Cypriot parliament against the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum, which calls on the EU to take measures against Ankara without delay, and explained that, as House President, she is writing to her counterparts to secure wider international support.

Mitsotakis: Turkey, SAFE and the interconnector

In the meeting with the prime minister the discussion moved to the European dimension. “Turkey cannot demand an upgrade of its relations with the European Union and seek participation in SAFE while illegally occupying European territory and provoking in the Aegean,” Demetriou said after meeting Mitsotakis, adding that any European benefit for Ankara must be tied to specific commitments. Defence and security and regional cooperation were also discussed, and on the memorandum it was agreed to seek its condemnation in every forum, including within the European People’s Party.

The Cyprus–Greece electricity interconnection dominated two of the meetings. With the prime minister it was described as a project of strategic importance that ends Cyprus’s energy isolation and strengthens European energy security, with the House President asking that Turkish objections be set aside. With Papastavrou she reviewed the project’s progress and agreed that renewables must be accelerated and investment in energy storage encouraged, while the EU should support this direction including through the new multiannual financial framework.

With Chatzivasileiou, Demetriou discussed coordination between the two countries and cooperation between DISY and New Democracy within the EPP family. Since Greece takes over the rotating EU Council Presidency on July 1, 2027, she asked that the Eastern Mediterranean be placed high on the European agenda and that the Union show that Turkey’s European ambitions presuppose respect for international law, the Law of the Sea and its “Cyprus-related obligations”.

The visit came a week after the speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly attacked Demetriou in Rome, at the Conference of Speakers of Parliament of the Council of Europe.