The Cypriot Ambassador to the EU, Kornelios Korneliou, provided a first insight yesterday (6 June) into the country's ambitions for its EU Presidency period, which begins in July, EurActiv reports. Meanwhile, Nicosia is readying a bailout request to salvage its banking system, which is heavily exposed to Greek debt.

Korneliou admitted that his country, a eurozone member, had problems with its banking sector. Asked if his country was going to ask for a bailout, he said: "Yes, this is a possibility, but we should wait and see what happens in Spain. In the case of Cyprus, we face also a lot of problems in the banking sector because of their exposure to the Greek market. And we need to see whether we are able to recapitalise our banks. If not, bailout would be a possibility. But we are not there yet. We have to wait a couple of days."

He said he hoped that any bailout would not affect Nicosia's handling of the EU presidency, "because this is something that is not related, but of course we will have to see what happens on the 1st of July".

The Ambassador also had the EU's neighbourhood policy and enlargement in his sights. He warned of an "Arab winter" if the EU failed to follow-up on the Arab Spring and, surprisingly, mentioned Turkey's accession process, despite conflicting views with Ankara on the Cyprus issue, which have stalled talks.

"Enlargement has been a very successful transformative tool," the Ambassador said. "I think there is a momentum there. We need to maintain that momentum and we should not allow the economic crisis to stop us from using this transformative tool in bringing closer the countries of the Western Balkans, Iceland, but also Turkey".
 

balkans.com