TRNC set to prepare federal laws for new partnership state with GC in the New Cyprus

The Cyprus negotiations are set to intensify as the two community leaders plan to meet six times next month, November 2015.

The President’s Political Adviser and General Coordinator for the Technical Committees Meltem Onurkan Samani (above), who spoke to BRT recently, also announced the establishment of a working party to prepare federal laws for a future partnership state.

She added that work was still in progress on the intensified schedules which would need to be compatible with the leaders’ other commitments. The various working groups and technical committees had also stepped up their work, she noted.

“A working group on federal laws has been established on both sides. The two sides of the working group will most likely come together on Monday next week and commence work. The main purpose of this working group as it can be understood from its name will be to prepare laws for the federal structure. The working group is made up of legal experts, mostly who are already working at the Presidential Palace but also laws from the Bar Association and several universities. Naturally the federal laws will have to be prepared in line with the EU Aquis Communitaire which is why a legal expert from the EU Coordination Office will also be taking part in the working group meetings” Samani added.

In addition to the various working groups there were currently 12 bi-communal technical committees who were focusing on confidence building measures, she said.

The Presidential Adviser also explained the current situation on work to connect mobile networks on both sides of the divide.

“Work carried out with the mobile GSM operators is actually completed. However there is a problem with the regulating authority. The authority has raised legal obstacles. We’re currently working on various formulas and proposals to overcome these legal obstacles. This is why we feel extremely disappointing about the issue. After all, the technical work has been completed” she said.

Samani also commented on reports that there was a divergence in views between President Mustafa Akıncı and his negotiator Özdil Nami.

“It’s only natural that there might be differences in opinion from time to time but let everyone be assured that everything is being conducted under a certain discipline. There is no conflict of views or divergences between Mr. Akıncı and Mr. Nami at this point in time” she said.

Meanwhile, the two negotiators met again yesterday as part of preparations for the leaders’ next meeting scheduled to take place on 30th October.

Credit: BRTK