In the landmark decision on the level of cooperation between southern European countries, a special summit will be held in Nicosia that will address and discuss issues that have both a direct and indirect bearing on their economy and polity.
7 southern European countries (who are also members of the European Union) will be holding the summit- namely Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and of course Cyprus. The countries will be discussing several issues, from region-specific issues, to Europe-specific issues (like the uncertainty of Brexit) to human interest issues such as climatic changes, energy, security, and immigration, among others.
The summit will have the heads of government or state of all the seven countries attending. They will discuss important issues such as the EU-Arab League meeting and the multi-annual financial framework for 2021-2027.
Nicos Christodoulides, Foreign Minister of Cyprus has expressed his interest in the success of the summit, emphasizing how important it is in the backdrop the current state of affairs in the EU, and Brexit, the discussion of the same at the May 19 Romania meeting. He further added that a declaration on the same will be issued once the summit is over.
According to Christodoulides, Cyprus will make sure that the immigration crisis remains an issue properly discussed. The island nation had previously warned the EU of unprecedented migrant arrival (with over 4000 immigrants having arrived in the last year on Cyprus alone – the island nation currently has a population of 1.2 million, with an increase of 1000 per month). The minister added that this problem is also being faced by other countries attending the summit, and they must come to a solution that is fair to both them and the migrants. He aims to have a very concrete answer on the declaration in this regard.
