The European Commission on Thursday rapped Turkey for barring EU-member Cyprus from preliminary talks for this year’s United Nations climate change talks that will be held in Antalya.
Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said the European Union has made it clear to Turkey that “it is not acceptable” to exclude a UN member from informal preliminary talks for the COP31 meetings set to take place from November 9-20.
She said that the EU executive has already raised the issue with the UN, Turkey and Australia, which is the co-host of the talks.
European diplomats said Ankara failed to invite Cyprus to the preliminary briefings and also rejected calls from Nicosia, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, for bilateral meetings on behalf of the bloc.
Officials in Brussels say they don’t expect Turkey to prevent Cyprus from participating in the official COP31 talks.
