European Council President Antonio Costa and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will hold key talks today, July 8, 2026, with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The main focus of the meeting, which is taking place on the sidelines of the NATO summit, will be bilateral relations between Brussels and Ankara, as well as diplomatic efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.
The European leaders will convey to Erdogan the unified and categorical position of Nicosia and the European Union: any future development and deepening of the partnership between the EU and Turkey is directly linked to substantial and positive progress on the issue of the divided island.
A window of opportunity for the UN
The talks come at a critical moment, as the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is actively preparing for an informal five-party meeting in an expanded format, which is expected to take place in late July or early August. In his latest report on the UN mission on the island, Guterres explicitly called on the leaders of the two communities to take advantage of the current “window of opportunity“.
Cyprus' goal is to officially announce the resumption of negotiations for a lasting solution to the problem at this meeting after a nearly 9-year hiatus. The President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides confirmed that Nicosia is fully prepared for talks “as early as tomorrow“, but their convening entirely depends on the consent and political will of the Turkish president.
The parties' positions and Brussels' pledges
The talks in Ankara are expected to outline the framework for possible future negotiations. The EU is not formally a party to the UN peace process, but is of key importance for its preparation. In the background, serious differences remain: while Brussels and Nicosia insist on a federal unification of the island, Erdogan has so far maintained that the only realistic solution is the "two-state" model.
In exchange for a possible constructive behavior on the Cyprus issue, Ankara hopes for progress on important issues in relations with Brussels. Among them are:
- Modernization of the EU-Turkey Customs Union.
- Progress in the visa liberalization process for Turkish citizens.
- Closer cooperation in the field of the defense industry.
Diplomatic sources of the newspaper "Politis" note that the geopolitical situation requires pragmatic dialogue. Whether today's meeting will open the way to a real agreement on Cyprus depends entirely on the signals that Erdogan will give to Costa and Von der Leyen.