[PIO] Statements by the President of the Republic on Cyprus and Energy

Our aim is to create synergies in relation to the coverage of Cyprus' internal energy needs, as well as the exploitation of the EU's effort to decouple from Russian natural gas, President Nicos Christodoulides said today.

In his statements to journalists after the memorial service of the hero Michalis Olympiou, in Lympia, and asked if the issue of the exploitation of natural gas in Cyprus is progressing, the President of the Republic said that "I recently had a meeting with Chevron executives and tomorrow a specific workshop will be held where we will develop our positions and approaches.

Our goal is to create synergies with two basic facts.

The first concerns the internal market of Cyprus, in order to deal with the issue that arises with the high cost of electricity and the second, to take advantage of the current situation at the European level, within the framework of the European Union's effort to decouple from Russian natural gas.

So, we are moving in these two directions, we have a clear and specific orientation, but also a strategy.

We also discussed in Egypt and Israel, and very soon specific timetables and a road map will be made public on how to reach the goal I mentioned before, for an internal market and exploitation for the EU."

Asked whether the issue of more active EU involvement in the Cyprus problem is moving forward, the President of the Republic replied "of course. I was, as you know, recently in Germany, the German Chancellor's positions were clear, a lot is also being done at the technical level to prepare ourselves.

At the invitation of the European Parliament, I will speak at the plenary session on 13 June, and the following day I will be in Vienna on exactly the same subject. And we are working on breaking the deadlock, and we welcome the fact that they see our approach that the EU can play a decisive role in this direction: resuming the talks, always within the framework of the United Nations. The EU comes to play a supporting role in the efforts of the UN."

In response to a journalist's remark that the Speaker of the Parliament and President of DISY excluded Government Ministers from membership of the European People's Party with the exception of the President of the Republic, President Christodoulides said that "parties are the cells of democracy. They are necessary components in a democratic state."

Beyond that, we fully agree with the President of the Democratic Rally that above all is our country and how we can best deal with the challenges we have, whether they concern Turkey, whether they concern immigration, whether they concern all of us, regardless of party or ideological origin. And the EU, we have all decided, and here we all agree, is the area that we can best claim. So, we fully agree with the President of the Parliament that our homeland is above all."

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