Cyprus National Council convenes ahead of bicommunal meeting

President of the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos will take part in Wednesday’s meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader with good will and hope that preconditions for progress will be created, said here Monday Government Spokesman Vasilis Palmas.

“The President will brief National Council members later today, listen to their views, their positions and concerns and on Wednesday he will meet Mehmet Ali Talat, always with good will in the hope that preconditions for progress will be created,” Palmas told his daily press briefing ahead of Monday’s Council meeting.

Responding to concerns about risks that an open agenda for the Talat meeting might entail, Palmas pointed out that in the letters exchanged for the meeting the position of the leaders was “that during this meeting the July 8 agreement should be promoted”.

The July 2006 agreement, clinched under UN auspices between Papadopoulos and Talat, provides for discussions at technical committees and working groups on issues that affect the day to day life of the people and concurrently issues relating to the substance of the question of Cyprus. No such discussions have taken place yet, in spite of year-long meetings between top aides of the leaders of the two communities, who are meeting on Wednesday in a bid to make headway towards the implementation of the agreement.

“The President’s positions are clear and have already been tabled and we believe that any discussion on these issues is merely a matter of personal opinion,” he added.

He also said that the “the UN-proposed solution plan, the Annan Plan, did not provide for a bizonal, bicommunal federation but it was a solution plan that would have created two states and in essence it abolished the bizonal, bicommunal federation.”

The National Council, the top advisory body to the Cypriot President on the Cyprus issue, is composed of two members from all parliamentary parties. The main opposition party Democratic Rally (DISY) has suspended its participation to the Council, saying it did not function properly.