The seventh paragraph of the joint declaration adopted at the Fourth Summit of the Southern European Union Countries (Med7), held in Rome on 10 January with the participation of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta and the Greek Cypriot Administration, contains distorted and unconstructive statements regarding the Cyprus settlement process. These statements reflect the Greek Cypriot stance that was the main reason for the failure of the negotiation process which began on the Island in 2008 and ended in 2017 with the closure of the Conference on Cyprus without an outcome. They provide yet another example of how the Greek Cypriot side takes advantage of its EU membership in its efforts to hinder a settlement.

The fact that such statements, which are far from being impartial and exclusively reflect the position of the Greek Cypriots, were allowed in a declaration by the Med7, a grouping containing several prominent EU members, does not provide any positive contribution to the efforts to reach a settlement in the Cyprus issue.