The President of the Cyprus Union of Shipowners, George Mouskas, had a working lunch with Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials Hinesh Rajani (Deputy team leader of the Eastern Mediterranean Desk) and Lydia Strachman (member of the Eastern Mediterranean desk for EU affairs). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the on-going Turkish embargo on all Cyprus flag vessels.
Mr Mouskas briefed the two officials on the negative effects of this embargo and asked the British government to help in persuading Turkey to finally lift this illegal embargo and to implement the Ankara Protocol. Both sides agreed that lifting the embargo will have positive effects on Cyprus, Turkey and the EU as a whole.
Mr Mouskas also handed a letter, addressed to Foreign Secretary William Hague, stating the position of the Union of Shipowners regarding the embargo on Cyprus flag vessels. In the letter, Mr Mouskas wrote: “This illegal Turkish embargo is very harmful to the whole economy of the EU and especially to Cyprus. Turkey, itself, pays a high price by maintaining the embargo on nearly 2,000 ocean going vessels flying the Cyprus Flag and obviously the cost of transportation of goods to Turkey is higher if you exclude all these vessels. We, as an organization, are constantly being encouraged by the European Union to try to persuade shipowners, especially European shipowners, to use a European Flag as opposed to non-European Flags of convenience. This is, however, very difficult to achieve when a large trading country, such as Turkey, imposes a unilateral ban upon the third largest European Union Flag”.
In this respect, he urged the Foreign Secretary and the UK Government to do what they can to help Cyprus, by using their good relations with Turkey, to try and lift this embargo, which will be beneficial not just to Cyprus and Turkey, but to the European Union as a whole.
Both sides agreed that a meeting between the Cyprus Union of Shipowners and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should take place every six months to monitor progress on this issue.