President of the Republic Nicos Christodoulides expressed his satisfaction with the discussion held during today's National Council meeting.
In his statements to journalists, while attending an event for SupportCy, the President of the Republic, asked about the National Council meeting, said "I want to publicly express my satisfaction for the discussion that took place, a very constructive discussion during which I had the opportunity to elaborate in detail how we are approaching the effort to break the deadlock, to resume the talks on the Cyprus problem and of course to achieve the major objective, which is its resolution.
I have listened to the approaches of the parties, their comments, I think they are constructive, I will take them seriously in the effort. At the same time, I asked for their input, through the groups that participate in the European Parliament.
The second part of the debate was about the presentation briefly, because the debate on the Cyprus problem lasted for a long time and there was no time to further develop my idea - the decision, to establish a National Security Council which, among many other roles it will have, is to further strengthen the work of the National Council.
I promised the parties that in the next few days I will also send in writing the general framework concerning the functioning, the establishment of the National Security Council.
The Republic of Cyprus is the only country in the region, but also at the European level in general, that does not have such a body, so we will proceed with a decision of the Council of Ministers and then it will go through the Parliament in order to make relevant legislation concerning the establishment and operation of such a body, which will have multiple roles, one of which is to strengthen the work of the National Council.
The aim through this decision is to upgrade the role and importance of the National Council as well."
When asked, the President said that the National Security Council will be composed "of technocrats primarily. We need the technocratic, scientific support for the effort on the Cyprus problem and other issues related to internal and external security, foreign policy, defence and civil protection."
Asked what Cyprus will do in the elections for the General Secretariat of the International Maritime Organization, the President said "when the nominations are over, we have a clear idea of where we will move, I mean to one of the nominations that have already been submitted, not the nomination from Turkey. Not because we have any 'allergy' - I want to make it clear, I wish the facts were different, that we could also support or accept support from Turkey. It is Turkey that does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus and not the Republic of Cyprus that does not recognise Turkey. But especially in the maritime sector, considering that since 1987, ships flying the Cypriot flag have not been allowed to approach Turkish ports - we see even at this moment Turkey taking advantage of the crisis in Ukraine on the occasion of the Russian invasion, not allowing ships flying the Cypriot flag to participate - you understand that for us such an option is out of the question."
Asked to refer to the measures announced by the Government yesterday to tackle violence in stadiums, the President said that "the issue will be discussed again in the Council of Ministers. What we announced yesterday will be evaluated, monitored."
It is an issue that is of great concern to us, it is an issue for which we must finally find a solution. We must all sit down together - the executive and the legislature and the Associations that have responsibility in this matter, the relevant Federations - so that a solution can be found if we want sport to serve what it should serve."
Asked if the measures announced are capable of curbing these phenomena, President Christodoulides said "that is why I said earlier that they will be constantly evaluated. Everything is judged by its effectiveness. We are the first - because we adopted the decisions - we will constantly evaluate them, we will monitor them and if necessary further measures will be taken".
(PM/NG)
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