Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-10-07

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, October 07, 1998

Luxembourg decision welcomed

ALL papers welcomed the news from Luxembourg that the EU Council of Foreign Ministers had, eventually, given the go-ahead for Cyprus to start substantive accession negotiations with the Union.

Reports were tempered by the knowledge that some countries had expressed reservations about Cyprus' accession before a settlement of the national problem.

Alithia reported that once again France had tried to set the condition of a settlement before accession, but says this was overcome after the intervention of Greece's Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos. The Foreign Ministers of Germany and Holland had also referred to the need for a settlement, without however setting it as a condition.

France, whose Foreign Minister said that a divided Cyprus could not be accepted in the Union, did not persist with his condition as his country did not want to be credited with blocking the accession procedure.

Haravghi praised Greece, thanks to whose "consistent and decisive support" Cyprus had overcome the obstacle put forward by France, Holland and Italy.

After the confrontation between Pangalos and his French counterpart, Hubert Védrine, the council decided unanimously that Cyprus, with the other five candidate countries, would start substantive accession negotiations, it said.

Simerini described the Luxembourg decision as a "victory for Cyprus". It said that Pangalos had called Védrine's stance on Cyprus "immoral".

Phileleftheros was more restrained in its reporting of the Luxembourg decision. It pointed out that the reservations expressed by France, Holland and Italy, were an indication of the difficulties that Nicosia and Athens would face in future stages of the EU accession course.

Government officials in Nicosia claimed that the reservations expressed were a form of indirect pressure on Greece in order to lift the veto on financial aid to Turkey, provided for by the Customs Union agreement between Ankara and the EU.

Machi reported that the communist party Akel had now stabbed Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou in the back, when just seven months ago it was praising him to high heaven.

Akel had forgotten its election alliance with Kyprianou, and had instructed its parliamentary spokesman Andreas Christou to support the same procedure for the allegations against the Diko leader as had been followed against Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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