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Cyprus: Annan Plan

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his intervention. The Council of Europe has not been raised by noble Lords, so I am not responding to that point. However, I recognise the fundamental role that the Council of Europe has played and will continue to play. I am sure that all noble Lords will agree that the search for a settlement in Cyprus should remain a top priority for British foreign policy. I can assure noble Lords that it will. The UK Government remain firmly committed to achieving a bi-zonal, bi-communal, federal solution to the Cyprus problem. We welcome the recent fact-finding mission to the region by Sir Kieran Prendergast, the UN Under-Secretary-General for political affairs. However, sadly, his report to the Security Council concluded that the gap between the stated positions of the parties appears to be widening and confidence between them is not high. The fact that he undertook such a fact-finding mission is in itself a small step forward. Today’s debate has reminded us all that in the mean time, while we wait for an acceptable solution, one practical thing that the UK and the EU can, and must, do is to help the Turkish Cypriots put this waiting period to good use, by allowing them to match the progress of their civil society with equally clear progress on the economic side. They have turned their backs on the politics of partition. We need to help them to resist the politics of despair.