Cyprus leaders want EU-based peace settlement

Rival Cypriot leaders said after negotiations on July 10 that any UN-brokered peace settlement for their divided island would be based on European Union principles.

President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci met for the sixth time in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia in the presence of UN envoy Espen Barth Eide.
 
"The leaders recognise the importance of having the principles and values upon which the European Union is founded upheld and embedded in the comprehensive settlement," UN envoy Espen Barth Eide said in a statement on behalf of  President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci.
 
"The leaders welcome the European Union's commitment to help the achievement of a comprehensive settlement and to prepare for the application of the EU acquis throughout the island," he added.
 
A divided Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 following a failed peace plan which effectively saw European law only applied in the government-controlled south of the island and not the Turkish-held north.
 
This was after 75 percent of Greek Cypriots voted against a UN settlement blueprint in a referendum, while Turkish Cypriots voted in favour.
 
The European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, is expected next week in Cyprus for talks with both leaders, whose meeting in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia on July 10 was their sixth since Akinci's election in April.
 
Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, said Juncker's mission would "provide a good opportunity to further underline the European Union readiness to assist the United Nations-led process".
 
Anastasiades and Akinci have also...