Council of EU presidency goes online as regional crisis continues

Meetings held under the auspices of Cyprus’ holding of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency are now being held online rather than in person, with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East impacting the island’s transport links with Europe.

“As regards the meetings of working groups, committees, and conferences, many of those meetings are now being held online, given the cancellations of flights and the difficulties experienced in people being able to be transported to Cyprus,” Cypriot presidency spokeswoman Stella Michael told the Cyprus Mail.

However, she said, it is still the Council of the EU’s preference that higher-level meetings, particularly among ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states, continue to be held face-to-face.

“For those informal ministerial meetings which were due to take place in Cyprus, the prospect of rearranging the dates is now being examined, with the aim that informal ministerial meetings will continue to be held in Cyprus when conditions allow,” she said.

She added that ministerial meetings which take place in Brussels are continuing to go ahead as planned, such as Thursday’s justice and home affairs (JHA) council, which is being chaired by Cypriot Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides at the Belgian capital’s Europa building.

While ministerial meetings, too, could take place online, “it is generally preferred that ministerial meetings take place in person, and as such, we are now examining the prospects and the possibilities of rearranging informal ministerial meetings so they can go ahead in person in Cyprus”, Michael said.

To this end, she also said that at present, there are no plans to move meetings out of Cyprus to take place elsewhere in the EU.

“At the moment, the focus is on rescheduling,” she said.

Her comments come after news website Politico quoted a diplomat from an EU member state as having said of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and its secondary effects on Cyprus that “this is the kind of thing that can change the EU’s entire agenda”.

“From energy to transport to migration, the consequences could be enormous, and Cyprus’ plans for its presidency may have to follow,” the diplomat said.

The Council of the EU’s programme for the coming days contains a mixture of postponements and online meetings, with Thursday’s informal meeting of culture ministers, adjacent meeting of culture think-tanks and cultural attaches, and a conference regarding rare diseases, all of which were due to take place in Nicosia, all having been postponed.

A meeting of the Council of the EU’s trade policy which had been due to take place in Limassol on Thursday was also postponed.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the European food safety authority advisory forum and a meeting of the EU customs alliance for borders steering committee are now to take place online.