The EU’s ‘substantive and more active involvement’ in the efforts to resume negotiations on the Cyprus problem could have a high added value for the efforts of the UNSG’s personal envoy Maria Angela Holguin, the government spokesperson Κonstantinos Letymbiotis said on Tuesday. He was briefing journalists after President Christodoulides’ ‘long and constructive’ meeting with the European Commission’s Cyprus problem envoy Johannes Hahn.

Letymbiotis has quite a talent for saying things devoid of any meaning. If challenged, would he be able to say in what way the EU’s ‘substantive and more active involvement’ materialised? Does the appointment of an envoy by the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen indicate a substantive and more active involvement by the EU? What shape has this involvement taken? Hahn has just paid his first visit to Cyprus and is unlikely to be seen by any member of the Turkish Cypriot leadership – he had a meeting just with the opposition leader Tufan Erhurman. How would the EU be more active in the Cyprus problem when the Turkish side is not talking to its envoy?

Even more nonsensical was Letymbiotis’ assertion that the EU’s (non-existent) more active involvement could have “a high added value for the efforts” of the UNSG’s personal envoy. Again, the fancy expression was not explained. What “high added value” would Hahn bring in practical terms, he never said. Nor did he say why Holguin would be looking for “high added value” to her efforts. Did she feel she was not good enough to handle the resumption of the talks and required the help of an EU envoy? If anything, Hahn could deduct value from Holguin’s effort to secure a resumption of the talks as the Turks are opposed to EU involvement.

The two sides cannot agree on the opening of a crossing point – they have been talking about it since last October without agreeing – and we are to believe that the appointment of a European envoy will help things. This is what the Christodoulides government wants people to believe, especially after the personal campaign of the president to secure a more active EU involvement in the Cyprus problem. He knew this would change nothing (it would certainly not add value), but it helped his campaign promoting his alleged commitment to a settlement.

Although nothing will come of Hahn’s visit (through no fault of his own), Letymbiotis decided to connect it with another government achievement – the linking of progress in the Cyprus problem with progress in EU-Turkey relations with customary incoherence. He said: “As envoy of the EU, especially under the architectural structure of the European Commission and taking into account that he reports directly to the President of the European Commission, but also under the prism of the Euro-Turkish relations, comments by Erdogan and Fidan prove the importance Turkey attaches to the progress of these EU-Turkish relations.”

With the assistance of the government, Hahn is more likely to add confusion rather than value to peace process.