First of all, I would like to thank the Heads of the Office of the European Parliament and the Representation of the European Commission in Cyprus for the very honourable invitation to participate in tonight's event, here at the House of the European Union, in Nicosia, to commemorate a very important anniversary for Europe, our common home, our big family. 73 years ago today, Robert Schuman, inspired by the strategic thinking and brilliant political planning of Jean Monet, made his famous Declaration in Paris, which was to change the course of European history and the lives of European citizens. As Robert Schuman himself declared on 9 May 1950, "Europe will not be built in one go, nor in an overall construction: it will be shaped by concrete achievements which will first create a real solidarity."
It is therefore only right that we commemorate the Schuman Declaration today throughout the length and breadth of the European Union, from Helsinki to Nicosia and from Lisbon to Warsaw and Rome. This is because it marked the beginning of European political integration and economic integration, leading to what we all know today as the European Union. And personally, I have no hesitation in claiming that the added value that the European Union brings with it is the greatest collective achievement of the human race on the Old Continent since the Enlightenment.
The creation of the European Coal and Steel Community was the beginning of a more general economic integration that would in future form the core of the European Federation. For the first time in their history, the European governments of the six founding member states ceded part of their sovereignty to a supranational entity, the Supreme Authority, which would take decisions through its constituted bodies by common agreement.
The political vision of the eminent men and women who established peace in Europe through the creation of the common institutions of the EU and who are looking after our common European interest is as relevant today as ever. I sincerely believe and share the vision of many in Europe that the EU will have even more added value if its institutional deepening goes further. If it has even more common policies. If the Member States cede even more of our national sovereignty to our common supranational institutions. I am an advocate and supporter of an evolutionary, step-by-step path towards building an EU with purely federal characteristics, just as Schuman and Monet envisioned a Federal Europe on 9 May 1950, but also many others such as Altiero Spinelli, Paul-Henri Spaak and Simone Vail! Building a federal EU is, in my view, something that our collective interest dictates in today's difficult and ever-changing globalised international context. The Member States of the EU can not only survive but also play a leading role in today's international context of intense geopolitical competition only if we are together, united in our diversity, sharing our common principles and values on which our European edifice is firmly founded. And it is this unity, which we have demonstrated all this time through the successive crises that have knocked on our door (whether they involve the Coronavirus or the Russian invasion of Ukraine), that we must keep steadfast, coherent, as the apple of our eye.
Today, as the war in Ukraine unfortunately continues, it is of the utmost importance that we maintain our undiminished support for the fighting heroic people of Ukraine. The message of a united Europe must continue to resound. Let me be absolutely clear: we will never tolerate border changes resulting from violence and war. Russia's illegal invasion cannot be tolerated. We can never accept the results of Russian aggression on an independent and sovereign state. It is a matter of principle and of the highest priority for us to ensure that the international system does not become anarchic in which the law of the strong prevails cynically over the law of the powerless. We in the EU will fight to the end for the prevalence of international law, for the prevalence of the principles of the United Nations Charter. We firmly believe in a multilateral world system governed by the rules of international law and a balance of power that guarantees world peace and security. Our only option is a rules-based world order. And for us, victims of invasion and occupation, I want to make it clear, there is no other option.
Since my time as head of Cypriot diplomacy, I have many times publicly deplored the general tendency of member state governments to adopt in an absolute way the successes of the EU as their own successes, won through hard bargaining, while blaming any difficult decisions that involve political costs, large or small, on 'bad Brussels', on the faceless bureaucrats of the institutions, on circumstances that did not allow the adoption of their own positions, rather than (again) on painful negotiations. It is this kind of behaviour and attitude on the part of Europe's political leaders that, in the long run, and I say unwittingly, help to incubate the ill-conceived Euroscepticism and pour water into the mill of the Europhobic, nationalist and populist forces in Europe that are fiercely fighting the European Union and have as their ardent goal the disintegration of the European Union.
Dear friends, I would like tonight, before the Ambassadors of the Member States who are present here, to state in the clearest possible terms that my government will never, throughout its term of office, follow such approaches. I personally have long experience and deep knowledge of the way in which the institutional decision-making system in the Union works. And I know first-hand that Brussels' decisions generally carry the consensus of all Member State representatives.
I am not claiming that the EU is a society of angels, nor that the voice and role of some Member States is not more powerful. I have no illusions. But I do have the clear view that meeting the challenges of small states with a political problem, such as our country under occupation, would be clearly more difficult outside the EU. And it is precisely in this context that I have repeatedly stated publicly that the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU in 2004 was our country's most important international success since its foundation in 1960.
A very important milestone in my government's term of office is the holding of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU by Cyprus in the first half of 2026. Personally, and having the blessing of actively participating in the first Cyprus Presidency in the second half of 2012, I attach the utmost importance to this milestone and I am fully aware that our country will have a unique opportunity to contribute in an absolutely positive way as Presidency and as an honest broker to ensure institutional coherence and to promote as many legislative dossiers as possible that will broaden the added value of the European integration process. Furthermore, I also have in mind some political initiatives that we can take within the framework of our Presidency in relation to political cooperation in the Mediterranean and the wider Middle East, our immediate neighbourhood, which we will discuss in due course with the High Representative of the Union and the European External Action Service.
If the first, and by definition successful, Cyprus Presidency of the Council in 2012 marked the coming of age of the Republic of Cyprus as a member state of the Union, the second Cyprus Presidency of the Council in 2026 should define Cyprus as a fully credible partner that will lead the Council with initiatives and coherent action, taking the unification process one step further.
It is within this framework that we should as soon as possible lay the foundations first in Nicosia, in terms of the programming that will be required and the institutional structure that needs to be put in place in order to be able to take timely action and successfully deliver the results we want within the framework of our Presidency. And let us not forget that the Cyprus Presidency is part of the Trio Presidency which starts with Poland in the first half of 2025, continues with Denmark in the second half of the same year and ends with the Cyprus Presidency in the first half of 2026. It is therefore imperative that we speed up our preparatory work and be fully prepared from the beginning of 2024 to work closely with our Trio Presidency partners both to develop the work programme and to assist, where requested, in the work of the Polish and Danish Presidencies.
In this context, it is of utmost importance to create the necessary structures in Nicosia that will prepare our country's public administration to successfully meet this great challenge. Bearing in mind the experience of the first Cyprus Presidency of the Council, I would like to announce today that in the very near future I will proceed with the appointment of a Deputy Minister to the Presidency with responsibility for European Affairs, based on the model followed during the first Cyprus Presidency of the Council.
The Deputy Minister for European Affairs will report directly to the President of the Republic and will also be the political head of the General Secretariat for European Affairs, which was established in 2019 on my proposal to the Council of Ministers. The Deputy Minister will assume responsibility for the horizontal preparation of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council, will represent Cyprus at the General Affairs Council and will contribute to the appropriate preparation of the President of the Republic at the EU summits, i.e. the European Council meetings.
At the same time, my ambition is that on the occasion of the second Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU we will create the necessary structures within the Cypriot government that will allow us to have a better coordination of positions. That is, for Cyprus to speak with absolute coherence and with a single voice in Brussels on all issues on the agenda of the Council and the EU at large, regardless of which ministry or government department has the competence to examine a particular policy issue or legislative file.
I would like to conclude my intervention tonight by underlining the utmost importance of the participation of the Republic of Cyprus as an equal member state of the EU. I am sure you will have heard me stress many times in the past, and I have done so again tonight, that the accession of Cyprus to the EU is the greatest diplomatic success of the Cypriot people as a whole since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus. Exactly nineteen years since our accession, I believe we are in a position to argue that, despite the difficulties and problems that the EU faces from time to time, Cyprus' membership of the great European family is a strong political and diplomatic shield against any attacks on our national sovereignty and independence.
The continuing division of Cyprus, as a result of the Turkish invasion and occupation, is unfortunately the greatest political anachronism within what is otherwise the most modern union of sovereign states in the world. Turkey's occupation of the northern part of Cyprus remains an open wound in the body of the entire EU. In this context, the open Cyprus issue is a predominantly European issue and the EU has every interest, but also an obligation, to contribute actively through a leading role to its final settlement, using all the political and economic instruments and tools at its disposal within the framework of Euro-Turkish relations. Our objective is clear: we firmly believe in a solution to the Cyprus problem with the reunification of Cyprus and its people within the agreed framework of the United Nations. We demand nothing less than what the citizens of the other Member States of our Union enjoy.
One of Jean Monnet's guiding principles was to solve problems by adding another dimension to an issue, thus differentiating the original context of the problem. "You change the context, you change the problem", he stressed. I often think about these words of Monet and I truly believe that through a more active institutional involvement of the EU and diversifying the context of the problem, strongly involving the Euro-Turkish dimension, we can break the current deadlock and restart the negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in July 2017 with a focus on a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.
With this in mind, I will conclude by saying that for me and my government, a strong EU means a strong Cyprus. My political commitment is that I will work tirelessly, both in the context of my participation in the European Council and more broadly, so that the EU remains cohesive and united in this difficult period we are going through with the geopolitical instability and the war that has unfortunately returned to our continent. And it is my firm belief that by remaining true to the founding principles and values of our Union, we can look forward to better days, we can look forward to an even better EU for the benefit of our citizens, and especially the new generation of Europeans.
(SX)
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