CYPRUS

At the risk of awakening all your pent up hostility to MEPs, I'm going to talk about the excellent meeting over dinner I had yesterday evening.

Two Cypriot MEPs, Ioannis Kasoulides and Panayiotis Demetriou , invited those MEPs who are member of the Parliamentary Friends of Cyprus to meet them in an informal setting to catch up with developments on the island. Over mezes in an extremely good Greek restaurant in Brussels we discussed the situation in Cyprus, especially the current talks between the leaders in the south and the north, Mr Cristofias and Mr Talat.

Two other MEPs were there, Jean Lambert and Sarah Ludford, with Graham Watson MEP joining us for a while.

The evening was made even more pleasant by the real optimism that this time there may well be a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Very many thanks to Mr Kasoulides and Mr Demetriou.