The President of the Republic, Mr.Nicos Anastasiades, chaired a meeting of the National Council at the Presidential Palace today. Marios Pelekanos told reporters that "during the session, the President made an extensive report on all the developments that emerged after the previous session of the National Council.
They discussed, among other things, the new Turkish challenges, but also the coordination between the Governments of Greece and Cyprus and the President informed about his intention, after completing the study of what is included in the new illegal protocol on economic cooperation signed by the occupying regime and Turkey, to make a further update through letters, both to the UN Secretary General and to the EU institutions, his European counterparts, the US and the guarantor powers.
The political leaders had the opportunity to put forward their own views and suggestions on the issues discussed.
On the other items on the agenda concerning the reforms that need to be taken forward so that we can make use of the funding allocated to the Republic of Cyprus from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Fund, as well as on actions taken to address the consequences of the new inflationary pressures, a discussion took place in a very good and constructive atmosphere.
The need to make the most of the full amount of the Recovery and Resilience Fund is recognised by all political parties.
After a discussion between the political leaders and the President of the Republic and the Minister of Finance, and after many issues were put on the table, it was decided that a new meeting will be held in the next few days under the chairmanship of the Minister of Finance.
This meeting will be attended by the political leaders, accompanied by persons from the financial staffs of the parties, so that a more detailed discussion can take place, with the aim of always being able to proceed with these reforms, the laws that are set as prerequisites by what is provided for in the Recovery and Resilience Fund of the Republic of Cyprus, in order to use the entire amount due to us as soon as possible.
The amount will be given in instalments and what is of great importance at this moment is that the bill concerning the protection of the guarantors and not only that, so that we can submit our request to receive the first instalment."
Asked about this, he said that the President will inform about all the developments in the letters he will send. "With regard to the refusal of the other side to proceed with the discussion on the MoU, I will reiterate what we received from the first moment we received the rejection, that as a government, as the Republic of Cyprus, we will not stop any efforts until the two main objectives are met.
The first is, of course, to stop any illegal actions by Turkey and the occupying regime and the second is to put the Cyprus problem back on track for resolution and return to the negotiating table."
Asked about this, he said that "we have not withdrawn and we will not withdraw the MEAs. We will continue our efforts."
To another question, the Spokesperson said that "as far as the issue of sanctions was concerned, it had never gone away. At a technocratic level, the issue of sanctions remained and still remains at a technocratic level and, depending on the developments and after we analyze all the data, we will have to await the new decisions of the President of the Republic."
(PM/MG/EXP)
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