The European Commission urged Cypriots to seize an “historic chance” to reunite and end the conflict that has been plaguing the divided island for decades. “There is a historic chance now to end this conflict once and for all,” EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. 
“The time is now. Do not allow a situation where the younger generation will accept the status quo,” he told journalists during a brief once-day visit to Nicosia. After meeting with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, Barroso said the EU Commission was ready to help and support a deal on Cyprus, but stressed that “we can help find a solution, we can support a solution, but it is up to the Cypriots themselves to find a solution.”
The Mediterranean island has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 sparked by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Greek Cypriots have lived in the south of Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots in the north, split by a United Nations supervised buffer zone which runs through the heart of the island’s capital. The 35-year-long conflict continues to pose a headache for diplomats, most recently in 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations settlement blueprint a week before the island joined the EU as a divided state.
Greek and Turkish Cypriots launched renewed peace talks last year, but the pace towards reaching any kind of settlement has been slow. Both ethnic communities agree, on paper, to rejoining the island as a bizonal and bicommunal federation, but disagree on how it will work.
EU officials have said that progress in the Cyprus reunification talks will be essential to move Turkey’s slow-moving EU accession process forward, especially inasmuch as Turkey refuses to allow the ships and planes of Cyprus to enter the country. Ankara’s EU membership talks, which began in October 2005, have been partially frozen because of the situation on the island. Greek Cypriots say they will not agree for Turkey to join the bloc as long as the island is partitioned. Ankara’s progress in membership talks will be assessed later this year.