Talat:I din’t rejecet EU aid without trade

TRNC President Mehmet Ali Talat in a letter sent to Cyprus Mail on 28 December refuted a statement by Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou that claimed he had rejected the EU’s 259 million euro aid package because it was decoupled with the direct trade regulation.

President Talat insists that it was the declaration that accompanied the financial aid measure, not the decoupling, that he found unacceptable.

The 259 million euro trade package, which was proposed in the wake of the April 2004 referendum to reward Turkish Cypriots for their yes ‘vote’, had to pass by the end of 2005 for the full amount to be granted. Almost half of the aid package – 120 million euros – will be lost if it is not allocated by December 31.

President Talat responded to a quote by Iacovou in an article in yesterday’s Cyprus Mail titled "Turkish Cypriots to lose 120 million euros in EU aid" in which Iacovou made the following statement:

"Nothing transpired because Mr Talat had telephoned (Enlargement Commissioner) Mr Olli Rehn to say that if the financial regulation was approved without the direct trade regulation then the Turks would reject the aid and will have nothing to do with the European Commission."

President Talat in his letter said that Iacovou’s statement was "completely untrue", adding that he had "openly stated that, although the Turkish Cypriot side does not approve the decoupling of the two regulations, it would not reject the financial aid if adopted without the direct trade regulation."

Talat further noted that it was not the aid regulation he had rejected but the declaration prepared by the European Commission that was to accompany the aid regulation.

The declaration set as a prerequisite the common understanding of all parties involved on the status of the Famagusta port and Varosha, as well as the protection of property rights in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

President Talat says that his opposition to the measure in his phone conversation on December 6 with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was with this declaration, which he found "unacceptable for Turkish Cypriots", not the decoupling of the aid and trade measures.