House President, Annita Demetriou, hailed on Tuesday the European Parliament President's personal interest in the Cyprus issue. Demetriou welcomed Roberta Metsola to the Parliament and had a tete-a-tete meeting before a joint meeting of the EP political parties' leaders with Cyprus parties' heads and a discussion to be held at the Plenary.
Welcoming Metsola, Demetriou noted that in her speeches the EP Head "always remembers Cyprus, always remembering and mentioning that still we have the Cyprus problem, the ongoing occupation and that means a lot to the Cyprus people".
Annita Demetriou called Metsola "a true friend" of legality and international law and a leader.
"Cyprus is next to you, next to the parliament. We need to protect our democracies, protect the European parliament, protect the European perspective," Demetriou noted.
She also said that we look forward to the Cyprus EU Presidency, pointing out that "we are well organized."
Demetriou further noted that in solidarity we can face all challenges and problems.
Metsola in her remarks said once again that she is pleased to be here, noting that Cyprus "has become, in a way, her second home" as she visits the island quite often in very timely occasions.
"Cyprus will take the leadership of the European Union on the 1st of January, and it is a tradition for the President and the rest of the political groups to travel to the country of the presidency a little bit before it starts, so that once we enter the presidency months, we will be able to hit the ground running," she noted.
Metsola said that yesterday they had excellent meetings with the government and today with the parliamentary parties, noting once again that Cyprus takes the presidency as a very pivotal and challenging time.
"And we look forward to this island's leadership, whether it is on security, defense, climate policy, digital simplification, things that our citizens have asked us to deal with, housing, specific, tangible challenges that the European Union can help [with]," Metsola said.
The head of the EP also noted that parliamentarians "can steer that discussion".
The photograph accompanying this article was taken during a previous meeting between the two officials.