Civil group presents "people’s proposal" on Cyprus conflict

According to a fresh proposal from a civil society group, the solution to the Cyprus conflict should “come from the people and be accepted by the people”. The authors’ aim is to position their document as a preferable alternative to the United Nations’ Annan Plan, which they believe is “inconsistent” with the “fundamental principles on which international law and the European Union are founded”. 

Drafted by eight professors of law from seven countries (Belgium, Canada, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States), this is a “people’s proposal” for a “just and lasting Cyprus settlement in the light of international and European law”, explains Nicholas K. Lazarou, a member of the board of the civil society group called the Committee for a European Solution in Cyprus, which commissioned the document. The proposal will be formally presented in Brussels on 12 October. 

The professors spent some eight months studying the Annan Plan, which is widely recognised as the only comprehensive attempt to date to solve the Cyprus problem, Lazarou said. Having identified and described several shortcomings in the plan, which was rejected in a referendum in the Republic of Cyprus in April 2004, they conclude that “a rejected plan must not be recycled and resubmitted under renewed political pressures and threats aimed at overturning the will of the people”. 

According to Lazarou, the prime ambition of the proposal is to provide a “methodology”  whereby the people of Cyprus can seek and reach a just and lasting settlement to their decades-old conflict. One core message of the document is that “the solution of the Cyprus problem must be found by respecting and applying the fundamental principles on which international law and the European Union are founded”. 

The authors argue that a just settlement in Cyprus can be reached “within the framework of a new and truly Cypriot Constitution”, which then should be submitted to a referendum. “Only the people of Cyprus can bring about the legitimacy essential for a new beginning,” says the document. “We do not believe that any particular party, community or external factor can propose a ‘solution’ as such,” Lazarou explains. “We are defining the process through which the solution will come from the people themselves. And the process suggested is a Constitutional Convention.” 

The proposal calls for the EU’s active involvement in the process (from adoption to monitoring), but Lazarou emphasises the need for the UN to similarly help and support it. He says that it is “accidental” that the publication of the proposal coincides with the opening of Turkey’s EU accession talks. “We actually want to keep these two issues separate,” he adds. 

The document has already been presented to all the interested parties, and Lazarou says that the initial unofficial feedback is “positive”, and adds that the settlement process can start “as soon as the [Cypriot] communities officially accept the idea”. 

Read the full interview  with Nicholas K. Lazarou.

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