MEDIA ADVISORY

Who: The Cyprus Action Network (CAN) (www.cyprusaction.org)

What: Members had meetings with six members of the European Parliament and Comission presenting CAN's views on important issues regarding developments in Cyprus.

When: on Wednesday, February 19th, 2003.

Where: Brusseles

On Wednesday, February 19th, 2003 two Cyprus Action Network members had face-to-face meetings with Members of the European Parliament from the Socialist, Social Democratic and Green groups of the European Parliament, as well as members of the European Commission's Cyprus team.

During the meeting, CAN presented a portfolio of documents which outlined some important human rights problems in Cyprus and covered the latest developments regarding the high level negotiations. CAN outlined its views on the pre-February 28th (the deadline proposed during the Copenhagen summit which links Cyprus' EU entry and the solution of the Cyprus problem) and the post-February 28th situation. Furthermore, it briefly, described its concerns on the content and applicability of the "Annan Plan" and its positive and negative points. The good-will of the post-74 generation to use this plan as a transitional step was also stressed by the members.

The exchanges proved to be informative and constructive both for the CAN members and for the EU representatives. The representatives considered the positions -most of which the Cypriot politicians are yet to raise openly- and propositions made by CAN members with great interest and suggested taking immediate action. The central issue that arose was that of the population census and of the urgency to act to ensure a fair representation of the Turkish Cypriot public opinion.

The documents presented to the representatives are available online at http://www.cyprusaction.org/protests/europefeb19/ . CAN will continue its efforts to raise public and official awareness of human rights issues in Cyprus.

For more information, please contact Eser Keskiner at keskiner@cyprusaction.org .