POLAND: THE PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS COUNCIL CONVENES IN WARSAW TO DISCUSS EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT AND U.N. PEACE PLAN FOR CYPRUS

Record ID: 584754

  • Title: POLAND: THE PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS COUNCIL CONVENES IN WARSAW TO DISCUSS EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT AND U.N. PEACE PLAN FOR CYPRUS
  • Date: 14th November 2002
  • Summary: (EU) WARSAW, POLAND (NOVEMBER 14, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: INTERIOR HOTEL SHERATON, DELEGATES REGISTERING 0.06 2. SV/MV: TURKISH DELEGATION MEETING, MAKING NOTES (2 SHOTS) 0.26 3. SV/TILT: TURKISH DELEGATION LED BY MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER, DENIZ BAYKAL WALKING UP STAIRS TO CONFERENCE HALL (2 SHOTS) 0.37 4. VARIOUS DELEGATES IN MEETING ROOM (2 SHOTS) 0.49 5. LV: EXTERIOR POLISH PARLIAMENT BUILDING 0.57 6. SV: GREEK PRIME MINISTER COSTAS SIMITIS ENTERING POLISH PRIME MINISTER LESZEK MILLER'S OFFICE 1.05 7. VARIOUS OF MEETING BETWEEN SIMITIS AND MILLER (2 SHOTS) 1.17 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) GREEK PRIME MINISTER COSTAS SIMITIS COMMENTING ON CYPRUS PEACE PLAN: "The proposition of the United Nations is the basis for discussion. We will discuss and if the other part agrees and we can overcome difficulties, then perhaps we can sign before the 12th December, but at this moment it's not true yet." (QUESTION - WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST SOLUTION?) "As I said we have to discuss and find solutions and find solutions because there are quite a lot of points that can be settled, better more rational way and we hope that the other side, the Turkish side agrees on that." 2.11 9. SV: SIMITIS WALKING ALONG CORRIDOR 2.16 10. LV: CONFERENCE HALL 2.21 11. SV: PRESIDENT OF LITHUANIA VALDAS ADAMKUS SHAKING HANDS WITH POLISH FORIEGN MINISTER WLODZIMIERZ CIMOSZEWICZ 2.31 12. SV: DELEGATES GREETING EACH OTHER 2.39 13. SV: GREEK DELEGATION ARRIVING INTO CONFERENCE HALL, GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER GEORGE PAPANDREOU 2.47 14. SV/SCU: GREEK DELEGATION AT CONFERENCE TABLE CHECKING DOCUMENTS (2 SHOTS) 2.56 15. WIDE SHOT/SV OF CONFERENCE HALL WITH DELEGATES (2 SHOTS) 3.10 16. WIDE SHOT OF PARLIAMENT BUILDING 3.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WARSAW, POLAND
  • Country: Poland
  • Reuters ID: LVA7OE4A74UMRIVW2JKK702W5YEY
  • Story Text: The Party of European Socialists Council has convened
    in Warsaw to discuss European Union enlargement. High on the
    agenda for discussion for both Greece and Turkey was the U.N.

    peace plan for Cyprus.


    The Party of European Socialists staged its first major
    political event in an European Union enlargement country on
    Thursday (November 14) when the newly-established PES Council
    held its first meeting in Warsaw.

    Prime ministers and party leaders from the European Union
    and countries seeking EU membership were among 300
    participants from social democratic parties and other bodies
    across the new Europe attending the conference.

    The Council will adopt a Warsaw Declaration on themes such
    as EU enlargement, globalisation and the future of European
    social democracy.

    The Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis told Reuters there
    was still discussions to take place with Turkey before the
    proposed U.N. Peace plan on Cyprus could be signed.

    "The proposition of the United Nations is the basis for
    discussion. We will discuss and if the other part agrees and
    we can overcome difficulties, then perhaps we can sign before
    the 12th December, but at this moment it's not true yet."
    He said more discussion was needed.

    "As I said we have to discuss and find solutions and find
    solutions because there are quite a lot of points that can be
    settled, better more rational way and we hope that the other
    side, the Turkish side agrees on that," Simitis said.

    U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week presented
    Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders with a proposal to end the
    divided island's decades-long stand-off just weeks before the
    European Union sets a date for its entry into the affluent
    bloc.

    Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and Cypriot President Glafcos
    Clerides have both suggested the U.N. draft could serve as a
    basis for talks, and Annan said he was encouraged by the
    signals coming from the communities' backers in Athens and
    Ankara.

    One of the most sensitive areas of the plan are
    territorial adjustments, which would lower the Turkish Cypriot
    stake from 36 percent of the island to around 28.5 percent.

    The plan, which sees a partnership between two equal
    states under a common state government, is seen as a last
    effort to ward off a looming crisis between Brussels and
    Turkey.

    The EU has said it will admit Cyprus with or without a
    settlement, probably in 2004, prompting Turkey to threaten to
    annex the north, under its sway since 1974 when troops invaded
    the island in response to a Greek-engineered coup.

    EU foreign ministers are likely to propose next week that
    the bloc's eastward expansion take place on April 1 or May 1,
    2004, instead of in January that year as earlier assumed,
    diplomats said on Thursday.

    The new date would aim to give parliaments in the 15
    current member states of the European Union more time to
    ratify the accession treaty, which is expected to be signed in
    April, 2003 with 10 mostly former communist countries, the
    diplomats said.

    The 10 countries set to join the EU in 2004 are Cyprus,
    the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
    Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.


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