Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 12-02-24

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] President: We need to persuade of our will to find a solution

[02] EU Commissioner hopes for progress in Cyprus talks

[03] Cyprus EU presidency to promote taxation proposals

[04] Greek language course for foreigners successful

[01] President: We need to persuade of our will to find a solution

According to an official press release issued on Friday, President Christofias, who was addressing on Thursday night a book presentation in Nicosia, said that he has personally concluded that Turkey has been, for a while now, accusing the Republic of Cyprus of not wanting a solution, projecting the argument that it rejected the previous UN Secretary General�s Kofi Anan�s plan in 2004, whereas Turkey supported it.

�No Turkish official will hold contacts without putting forward this argument�, he said, expressing the view that �we have maybe underestimated this argument and we still do�.

President Christofias further noted that �we need to work with the international community in order to be persuasive as to the reasons why the plan was rejected�, adding that �we need to undertake initiatives to persuade that we wish for the Cyprus issue to be resolved and that the obstacle preventing a solution is the establishment in both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot Community�.

[02] EU Commissioner hopes for progress in Cyprus talks

Johannes Hahn was speaking to the press following his today�s meeting with President of the Republic Demetris Christofias, which was held at the Presidential Palace.

He said that the meeting was very interesting, noting that President Christofias informed him about the state of play concerning the ongoing negotiations between the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus. �I hope that there will be progress because the country will benefit from it�, he added.

He went on to say that they also discussed about the new drilling explorations of hydrocarbons Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ).

[03] Cyprus EU presidency to promote taxation proposals

On his part, Semeta said he looks forward to a successful Cyprus presidency as regards taxation matters as well.

In statements she made to the press after their meeting at the Ministry of Finance in Nicosia, Charalambous said that �we have stressed that Cyprus as the presiding country of the EU during the second half of 2012, will work on pending matters which fall under mr. Semesta�s remit``.

Charalambous further expressed the view that �these matters are clearly very important�, adding that �progress on these issues will depend on the efforts made to find the necessary convergences between member states�.

[04] Greek language course for foreigners successful

Under the motto �Learn Greek� the course aims to help immigrants and foreigners residing in Cyprus, to integrate into the Cypriot society, Minister of Education and Culture George Demosthenous said, describing the course as a successful and an innovative one.

The number of the participants during the first two years the course has been implemented has reached 6,078, from 92 countries and it is estimated that it will rise to 15,000 by 2015, as stated during the presentation of the course at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The Greek language learning course is co-financed by 70% by the European Social Fund and its budget amounts to 3.2 million euros. �The course has so far been extremely successful� Demosthenous said.

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