ATHENS — Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides is interested in gaining control over a new role in the European Commission running EU policy on the Mediterranean.
Cyprus has a lot to offer on shipping and other issues affecting the region, making a Cypriot candidate ideal for the role, he told POLITICO in a Tuesday interview.
The new Brussels portfolio, put forward by newly re-appointed Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, would focus on economic affairs as well as people trafficking and migration from North Africa.
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told POLITICO in a separate interview this week that he also saw value in the role, although he stopped short of saying he wanted a Greek to fill it.
“We can contribute to issues related to shipping and the Mediterranean,” Christodoulides said. Von der Leyen’s plan to create a separate portfolio to deal with the Mediterranean follows lobbying on the issue by Cyprus, he added. “It is after our own urgings that the President felt the need to have a commissioner to deal exclusively with this.”
“We will have to see in practice what the Mediterranean portfolio means, what are the powers, what are the responsibilities, what is the scope of engagement,” he noted, adding that he has discussed some other portfolios with the Commission president.
Over the next few weeks, von der Leyen will be assessing who she wants in which posts in her new Commission. EU governments have been asked to put forward names to be interviewed by von der Leyen, who will then choose who she wants. Closed-door negotiations are underway on which countries will get the most powerful jobs in the new-look Commission.
The Cypriot president said his government should be granted an “important” portfolio.
“We are no longer a new member state, we have 20 years of experience, we have held a presidency and in the first half of 2026 we will hold the second presidency of the Council of the EU. We now want a portfolio where we believe that the representative of the Republic of Cyprus will have added value.”
50 years since Turkey invaded Cyprus
This year is symbolic for the Eastern Mediterranean island as it marks half a century since Turkish forces invaded Cyprus, in response to a Greece-backed coup, as well as 20 years since it became an EU member state.
Five decades on, Christodoulides said, momentum exists to restart talks to resolve the dispute with Turkey, even though the island’s partition between the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish north is more entrenched than ever.
“We cannot afford to wait for a new effort, a new initiative,” he said, offering to take “bold steps” in the coming months. “We have seen from what is happening in Gaza that there are no frozen conflicts. At any moment, an incident can lead to a flare-up in Cyprus and affect the region. The non-solution of the Cyprus problem is not a solution.”
Ankara does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state that is otherwise recognized internationally as the sole sovereign authority over the whole island.
Multiple attempts to find a compromise settlement over the years have failed, the last in 2017 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland; formal talks have not resumed since. This is the longest period that has passed without dialogue.
On the Saturday anniversary of the invasion from the northern part of the island, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dashed hopes for a resumption of talks and reaffirmed his support for a two-state deal. He reiterated that stance on Wednesday.
Christodoulides repeated his call for an enhanced role for the bloc in the Cyprus talks and for the appointment of an EU political figure to deal with the issue. “Where there is still disagreement with Turkey, the answer lies in the EU. EU involvement will result in a solution that benefits both the EU and Turkey.”
