President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides will preside on Monday over the National Council, the top advisory body to the President on the handling of the Cyprus issue.
CNA has learnt that the meeting of the National Council will begin at 1030 in the morning.
President Christodoulides said today that preparatory work on the Cyprus issue will continue throughout August, noting that, for the first time in many years, there is significant momentum in efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, announced from Cyprus that he visited for the first time, that another 5+1 meeting on the Cyprus problem would be convened, after adequate preparations on confidence building, methodology and substance, taking into account the convergences already achieved.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s Special Representative for Cyprus and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, is expected to arrive in Cyprus on Thursday. On Friday, he will have meetings with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, as well as the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhrman.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory.
Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
After informal meetings in 2025, followed by a hiatus of several months, deliberations are underway for a new meeting in broader format to be held, as the term of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres nears its end. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.