Cyprus needs more than open borders, says MEP

The opening of the Ledra Street crossing in Nicosia is symbolic, but it will not solve the island's problem, a Cypriot MEP has said.

"Reunification is the ideal solution, and this is why I welcome the opening of Ledra Street," Marios Matsakis told the Parliament Magazine on Friday.

"It’s symbolic, but it won’t solve the Cyprus problem. To have true unification it’s important to have withdrawal of all troops from Cyprus and to formulate a new constitution."

His statement comes just hours after the crossing was forced to close again because a patrol of Turkish Cypriot police reportedly advanced towards the Greek Cypriot control post, which violates the agreement reached by the leaders of the two communities at their meeting on 21 March.

On Thursday Cyprus had opened the border crossing at Ledra Street, the site of the so-called green line, which has come to symbolise the division of the island for the last 44 years.

Parliament’s president Hans-Gert Pöttering said the opening of the crossing is an important first move. "I welcome this first step of a real and visible approach between the two communities on Cyprus.

"I hope that it will lead to many other steps that will improve the daily life of the citizens of both communities and that it will finally lead to Cyprus being an undivided member state.”

One of the sticking points in negotiations has been whether to base talks on the proposal put forward by then UN secretary general Kofi Annan in 2004, which the Greek Cypriot people threw out in a referendum, or to use the agreement signed by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and former Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos in July 2006.

For Matsakis, who was a candidate in for the 2008 Cypriot presidential election, a solution must be based on a simple federal system.

"We should have a simple system. The system that was put to the vote was the Annan plan and it was the most complicated federal system I have come across. It was totally unworkable.

"We should have a democratic system where there is unity of Cyprus with local autonomy for Turkish Cypriots – if they wish for it."

Italian MEP Monica Frassoni said the next step the EU should take is an economic one. "We call on the European commission to speed up the procedures to deliver the economic package for the Turkish community in the northern part of the island.

"The council, in turn, must deliver on its promises to adopt a direct trade regulation and put an end to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community."

The EU announced on Thursday that it has made €100,000 available for a UN-managed project to open the crossing, which will take about three months, and to upgrade the Ledra Street area.

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