The migrant and refugee crisis affecting the EU and the Cyprus problem were on the agenda of a meeting the President of the Cyprus House of Representatives had in Brussels with European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Demetris Avramopoulos.
Omirou got an in depth briefing on the unprecedented crisis the EU is faced with as a result of the huge flow of refugees and stressed the need to address the causes of the problem.
“The EU must respond to this challenge with solidarity and of course with equal burden sharing,” he pointed out in statements after the meeting, noting that “everyone must assume their responsibilities”.
“We have to solve the problems that create refugee flows” he stressed, adding that addressing the results and the consequences of these problems is not enough. The great powers and the EU, have a role to play in dealing with the root causes of the problem, Omirou noted.
The President of the Cyprus Parliament and the European Commissioner agreed that the Cyprus problem is at a critical phase. The EU, he said, must put pressure on Turkey, as the Cyprus problem is not only an international problem, but a European one as well, and therefore the EU must play a key role in order for Turkey, a country that aspires to join the Union, to realise that it has to come to terms with the idea of a just and democratic solution of the Cyprus problem.
The European Commissioner Demetris Avramopoulos said that EU member states must now implement EU policies on the basis of the key principles of solidarity and responsibility, which, as he noted, “are clearly expressed in the founding texts of the Union”.
Avramopoulos expressed hope for a lasting and stable solution to the Cyprus problem.
“Cyprus has been in European orbit for a long time and always the aim is to find what is desired by all Cypriots, a stable, viable solution to reunite the island, to be able to play an important strategic role in the region and Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots can live in harmony in a single democratic state within the European Union” he said.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. UN-led peace talks are currently underway to find a negotiated settlement to reunite the country.