The UK believes that the outcome of the negotiations on Brexit with regard to Cyprus should protect what currently exists which is of value to Britain, to Cyprus and the rest of the EU member states, British High Commissioner Matthew Kidd has said.
Furthermore he said that not leaving Europe, also means continuing to value probably even more the bilateral relationships that the UK has with EU member states.
“From my point of view here, we know that the negotiations matter a lot to Cyprus because of the extent to which Cyprus` economy, its population, education and other links are closely interlinked with our own because of the people links, the tourists who come from the UK to Cyprus,” he told CNA, when invited to outline the British stance on Brexit in relation to Cyprus.
The UK, he explained, “will want to work with Cyprus as part of developing our negotiating positions, and as part of negotiating with the 27 because we do believe that the outcome can be and should be one which protects what currently exists which is of value to us and to them and can be reflected in some sort of new deep special partnership which does not exist anywhere else in the world between any group of countries but which will be able to be developed among the 28 because we start with so much in common which we will want to protect and develop.”
Kidd welcomed today`s start by the President of the European Council Donald Tusk of the process of agreeing by 27 the guidelines from their side to define how the negotiations work, saying “from our point of view that is good because we want to get on with this.”
“We hope we can all agree to make this a collaborative and constructive negotiation in which all of us can decide how to continue to project and promote the European values that will all continue to share, the prosperity and security we all want to continue to promote,” the High Commissioner said.
The UK, he added, is going to be leaving the EU but not Europe, so the shared values will continue to apply to all of us.
“Not leaving Europe also means continuing to value, probably value even more – and work even harder – the bilateral relationships that we have with EU member states and the rest of the world and that would mean attaching more value to some of the other group networks we belong to, including the Commonwealth,” he said.
Britain, he said, hopes to make “an early priority of the issues that will directly affect citizens and business because we think it is important to try to achieve clarity for them as early in the process as we possibly can.”
