<p>NICOSIA, Cyprus — The European Union is ready to “actively contribute” to a new push to revive dormant talks on reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus, the Cypriot government said on Friday.</p>
<p>Government spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell conveyed the bloc’s readiness to help kickstart peace talks, during a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades in the capital Nicosia earlier. </p>
<p>Koushos said in a written statement that Borrell told Anastasiades the EU believes a peace deal must be within the framework outlined by the United Nations, “as well as the founding principles and EU law.”</p>
<p>This suggests EU backing for the Greek Cypriots’ insistence on a federal solution, as opposed to a drive by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots to scrap the decades-old formula and move forward with a deal based on two separate states.</p>
<p>Borrell’s visit to Cyprus comes ahead of a planned informal meeting in Switzerland next month, hosted by U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres, that will bring together both sides on Cyprus, as well as the east Mediterranean island nation’s “guarantors” — Greece, Turkey and former colonial ruler Britain. The aim will be to gauge whether there’s enough common ground to resume a process that was shelved in 2017 when high-level negotiations collapsed amid acrimony. </p>
<p>Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third. Although Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, only the southern, internationally recognized part enjoys full benefits.</p>
<p>Cyprus’ continued division has ratcheted up tensions with Turkey over claims to potential offshore oil and gas deposits in the east Mediterranean, and remains a key stumbling block to Ankara’s troubled bid for EU membership. </p>
<p>Greek Cypriots see a more engaged EU in peace talks as a possible bulwark against the shift in the position of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots — from the long-held aim of a federated Cyprus made up of Greek and Turkish-speaking zones — to an agreement struck between two equal, internationally recognized states.</p>
<p>An overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots strongly oppose any deal that would legitimize Cyprus’ ethnic partition. </p>
<p>In a video conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel late Thursday, Anastasiades said that EU participation in peace talks is essential to ensure that “whatever is agreed is compatible” with EU law.</p>
<p>The Cypriot government also cites numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions stating that any peace deal should be based on a federal model.</p>
<p>Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots see it differently, insisting that decades of negotiations on cobbling together a federation have gone nowhere and that a two-state solution should be considered a feasible alternative. </p>
<p>In a written statement, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar repeated that the federal model for Cyprus has “collapsed.” He said a peace deal based on “cooperation between two states living side-by-side on the bases of sovereign equality” is something that has the backing of Turkey “which is the biggest and most powerful state in the region.”</p>
