Antigoni Papadopoulou (S&D). – (EL) Madam President, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten has made a tremendous effort to present a balanced report and we thank her. Amendments 13 and 14 by the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance upset this balance and I therefore urge you to vote against them.

In the talks being conducted on the Cyprus question, Turkey, via Mr Talat, has tabled unacceptable proposals and remains intransigent and maximalist. That is why it is wrong to call on all the parties to support the negotiations under way. The party on which pressure needs to be exerted is Turkey as the occupying power. Turkey must immediately withdraw all Turkish troops, end the occupation and stop holding the Turkish-Cypriot community hostage, because it, not the Greek Cypriots, is responsible for the so-called isolation of Turkish Cypriots. Turkey needs to return the besieged town of Varosha and to stop illegal settlements and the encroachment on to Greek Cypriot property.

Turkey holds the key to the solution to the Cyprus problem and progress with its accession. The small country of Cyprus asks for nothing more and nothing less than a solution in keeping with the European acquis, without derogations, and with the UN resolutions. Cypriots are not second-class citizens of some sort of Ottoman or other colony. We are European citizens with European rights.