NICOSIA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the seven southern European Union (EU) countries are meeting here in the Cypriot capital later on Tuesday to discuss major challenges their countries and EU are facing.
A Cypriot official said they will focus on issues which mostly affect them, such as the migration crisis, energy security, climatic change and regional political problems.
But they will also debate on wider issues, including a possible hard Brexit, the multiannual fiscal framework and developments in the euro area, ahead of an unofficial EU summit in Bucharest in February, said the official.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will host at the fifth annual Med-7 Summit Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles, and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa.
They will start arriving early in the afternoon, ahead of a plenary session late in the afternoon.
Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said that the seven leaders are not acting as a group but as leaders of EU countries which share common interests.
He added that some of the greatest challenges Europe is faced with today are of particular interest to the Mediterranean, namely migration, the inflow of refugees and climate change, on which President Anastasiades will make a specific proposal for action.
Anastasiades will brief the meeting on latest developments on the Cyprus problem, ahead of new talks involving a United Nations envoy in Nicosia on Sunday, for restarting the stalled peace negotiations after a gap of almost two years, the spokesman said.
The Cypriot president is also expected to raise the issues of energy security in the eastern Mediterranean in the face of harassment of natural gas exploration in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone by Turkey, which does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU and UN member, as a state.
Prodromou said the Med-7 summit in Nicosia is a practical reply to Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus.
According to the spokesman, the summit will issue a joint declaration, which he termed as a document of special political importance to emphasize the migration issue.
"This major issue has been confined to a large extent in the south and this is also exerting great pressure on Cyprus, as thousands of unregulated immigrants arrive constantly," he said.
He added that Nicosia is appealing to the European Union, not necessarily for economic assistance but application in practice of the principle of solidarity, taking into consideration that Turkey refuses to apply its agreement with EU for the readmission of refugees when it comes to Cyprus.
Ahead of the summit, Anastasiades will meet privately France's Macron to conclude bilateral agreements, which may include security arrangements for natural gas exploration activities, given that French Total company is involved in gas drilling.
He will also discuss in private with Italian Prime Minister Conte the proposed EastMed project to construct a 2,000 kilometer long gas pipe to carry natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy.
