Undertaking the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency is “a moment of pride”, European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna said on Thursday.
“Cyprus will work as an honest and reliable mediator, representing all member states equally and seeking consensual solutions, in a particularly demanding geopolitical context,” she told the Cyprus News Agency.
She added that the government has “from the very beginning” approached the undertaking of the role “not simply as an institutional duty, but as a national mission and a strategic opportunity for the Republic of Cyprus to contribute substantially to the European project”.
Additionally, she said, the undertaking of the role offers Cyprus the chance “to upgrade its role, both within the union and internationally”.
She also made reference to the priorities the government has set for its six-month term, including “strengthening European defence and security and the union’s preparedness for crisis management” and “promoting a credible EU enlargement policy”.
Other priorities, she said, include “expanding and strengthening cooperation with the southern neighbourhood and the Gulf, as well as deepening relations with our transatlantic partners”.
Away from foreign affairs and defence, she also spoke of hopes to progress EU policy on affordable housing, protecting minors online, and “strengthening the European health union” – the name given to the European Commission’s plans to shore up the bloc’s health system and better equip it to deal with crises, as well as building greater cooperation between member states in the field.
Her reference to enlargement comes after President Nikos Christodoulides had said at last month’s European Council summit that the EU “must deliver” on the issue of enlargement.
“Enlargement falls within the European Union’s political range and we must do much more. We must succeed,” he said.
There are ten countries outside the EU which have applied to join the bloc, of which six – Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine – are currently negotiating candidates.
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia are candidates which are yet to commence negotiations, with Georgia having suspended its application process. Turkey’s negotiations have been frozen since 2016, while Kosovo, which the Republic of Cyprus does not recognise, applied to join the EU in 2022 but has not yet been designated a candidate.
It has now been 13 and a half years since Croatia, the last country to join the EU, did so in 2013, and in the intervening years, one member state, the United Kingdom, has left the bloc.
This 13-and-a-half-year period between new member states’ joining is the longest since the 20 and a half years between the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952 and the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the UK to the European Communities in 1973.
