By In-cyprus.com
President Nicos Anastasiades is set to hold separate meetings with EU leaders on Thursday as he attempts to bolster support ahead of the second Conference On Cyprus in Crans-Montana next week.
Anastasiades arrived in Brussels for the European Council summit on Wednesday which will predominately focus on counter-terrorism, common defence and security.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is also expected to provide her fellow European Union leaders with detail on the status and rights which the UK plans to offer EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit.
The Cypriot president will also be seeking to push the island’s agenda in Brussels and, according to a statement by the Presidential Palace, Anastasiades will inform European leaders on latest developments in the efforts to reach a Cyprus settlement, “both during the dinner with all the leaders as well as in the course of bilateral meetings”.
His meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday is expected to be especially crucially with regard to the plan of action both Cyprus and Greece will take next week at the conference.
On Wednesday, he briefed European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and then European Council President Donald Tusk about the conference which is set to take place on June 28 in Switzerland.
The EU will be represented at the conference by First Vice President Frans Timmermans, his Special Representative Peter Van Nuffel and Marteen Verwey – who is the European Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service Director General.
Anastasiades has been continuously hiaghlighting the importance of making progress on the hotly-debated issues of security and guarantees – something which political insiders say could finally crack the case in terms of paving the way for a solution.
He further underlined the decisive role Turkey is called to play, in order to reach the progress required in the crucial chapters of security and guarantees.
