French Ambassador to Cyprus Salina Grenette Catalano stressed the need for careful monitoring of Turkey's actions in all its areas of activity, who attended today's meeting of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives to present the priorities of the French Presidency of the European Union.
Responding to questions from members of the Committee on France's and the EU's attitude towards Turkey's problematic behaviour, Mrs. Grenette Catalano noted that a constructive and pragmatic dialogue with Turkey on issues such as climate change and the fight against terrorism should be pursued, but under clear conditions, such as respect for international law, adding that the dialogue could not be about Turkey's accession to the European Union under the present circumstances.
In statements following the end of the meeting, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman and DISY MP Harris Georgiades expressed his support for the effort for strategic autonomy of the European Union. "It is necessary for the EU to speak with one voice in relation to international developments, in its external relations," he said.
"In this context, we support the moves for the Common Defence and for the Common European Army, as well as we consider the promotion of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum a priority," he added, adding "and the need to have a credible, common policy towards Turkey."
On the AKEL side, MP Marina Nicolaou mentioned in her statements the need to strengthen public health systems across the EU, adding that "instead of the EU investing in militarisation and war industries, which only bring wars and increase refugee flows, this money should be invested in public health and public education".
On behalf of DIKO, MP Christiana Erotokritou, who expressed the party's position in favour of all efforts to create a common European defence mechanism, said that Cyprus suffers the most from the migration issue and from the "instrumentalisation of innocent souls by various cunning and insidious people, He stressed that "we need and need further help and support from the Republic of Cyprus to deal with the great wave of migration, which is largely caused by Turkey for its own purposes".
Statements after the meeting were also made by ELAM MP Geadis Geadis, according to whom the assumption of the French Presidency is an opportunity to highlight both the Cyprus and migration issues, as well as an opportunity to create a common defence between European states. "At the same time, we highlighted that the agreement between Greece and France on Cyprus should be extended at the military level, and the permanent presence of French military forces in Cyprus should be considered, on the basis of a study that we have carried out in this regard."
During the presentation of the priorities of the French Presidency, Ms. Grenette Catalano referred to the three main pillars of the priorities entitled "recovery, strength and sense of belonging" and outlined the main objectives of the Presidency's programme, which include, among others, the creation of a new system of governance for the Schengen area, re-launching discussions on the European Asylum and Migration Pact, the adoption of the Compass Strategy, the geographical focus on Africa and the Western Balkans, the creation of a new European economic and social model, and the implementation of the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Replying to a question by AKEL MP George Koukoumas on NATO's role in the Strategic Autonomy Initiative, the French ambassador said that the relationship between the two will be complementary, stressing that the priority for France is the defence independence of Europe, while asked to comment on the European Commission's inclusion of nuclear energy in the green energy initiative, Ms. Grenette Catalano noted that, like natural gas, nuclear energy is a transitional form of energy on the road to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
Source: CNA
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