A clear message to Turkey and personally to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the EU will never accept a two-state solution for Cyprus, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has sent shortly after the conclusion of the Brussels Summit.
Indeed, as she said, she spoke by phone at the beginning of the week with Turkish President Erdogan and conveyed a very clear message to him about his upcoming visit to Cyprus, telling him that this is a very sensitive issue for the EU.
She even described as “disappointing” the fact that there is “little or no progress on Cyprus”.
In particular, he noted that “overall relations with Turkey have improved recently, there is de-escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean, there are talks between Greece and Turkey and this is a starting point but on the other hand, we are still seeing little or no progress with regard to Cyprus and that is disappointing”.
“We know that in a short time, on July 20th, the Turkish President will visit Cyprus and I told him that this is a very sensitive issue for us. I stressed that we are clear that we will follow the course of this visit and that we will never accept, as the EU, a two-state solution,”
Ursula von der Leyen said during a press conference and added that this “clear message” was personally conveyed to President Erdogan and that it is now up to him to send a positive message.
