Monday’s meeting in London of European Liberals is important for Europe, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and President of the Cyprus United Democrats party, Praxoula Antoniadou, has said.
Antoniadou is in London to take part in a meeting of Liberal allies from around Europe to promote Britain’s agenda of re-engagement with the European Union, after the UK vetoed an EU treaty in December.
”This is a substantive and important discussion on the future of the European economy,” Antoniadou told CNA, adding the British Liberal Democrats are in favour of a European fiscal discipline only with regard to the solidarity among EU member-states and growth.
On the sidelines of the meeting, she expects to have the opportunity to brief her interlocutors on recent developments in Cyprus with regard to energy matters.
The meeting was called by Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy British Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Sir Graham Watson MEP, President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), the grouping of Liberal parties in Europe, following British Prime Minister David Cameron’s refusal to sign a EU Treaty change during an EU Summit in December on more EU-wide fiscal measures which would help resolve the eurozone debt crisis.
The meeting will focus on three issues, namely Eurozone and treaty change, European economic growth and the EU multiannual financial framework.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn and German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler are among the senior Liberal figures joining Clegg at the mini-summit in the British capital.
The summit is formally a meeting of the European Liberal Democrats, an association which groups 55 liberal parties across Europe.
Noble Energy, which completed an exploratory drilling in block 12 of Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone, announced last month the discovery of an estimated natural gas gross resource range of 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), with a gross mean of 7 Tcf.
Cyprus is set to launch soon the second licensing round for the remaining 12 blocks of its EEZ.  (CNA)