{"id":459769,"date":"2026-07-13T17:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/13\/fitto-nominato-rappresentante-speciale-della-commissione-ue-per-cipro\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:24:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:24:41","slug":"fitto-appointed-as-the-eu-commissions-special-representative-for-cyprus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/13\/fitto-appointed-as-the-eu-commissions-special-representative-for-cyprus\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitto appointed as the EU Commission\u2019s Special Representative for Cyprus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 The Executive Vice-President for Cohesion, Raffaele Fitto, has been appointed to a new role by the European Commission. <strong>The Italian Commissioner has been appointed as the Commission\u2019s Special Representative for Cyprus.<\/strong> In this capacity, Fitto will be tasked with contributing to&nbsp;resolving the Cyprus issue within the framework of the United Nations, in close collaboration with the UN Secretary-General\u2019s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, Mar\u00eda \u00c1ngela Holgu\u00edn Cu\u00e9llar.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This appointment reflects the EU Commission\u2019s<strong> strong commitment to the reunification of Cyprus<\/strong>, with the aim of achieving<br \/>\na functional and viable comprehensive settlement,&#8221; explains the European Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_1593\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a press release<\/a>. Cyprus has been divided between the Turkish Cypriot north and the Greek Cypriot south since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded the island in response to a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat backed by Greece. <strong>Ankara does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus<\/strong>, an EU member state which is, however, internationally recognised as the sole sovereign authority over the entire island. The Turkish Cypriot north is recognised only by Turkey.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Executive Vice-President succeeds the former European Commissioner for the Budget, <strong>Johannes Hahn. <\/strong>Fitto will be required to engage with stakeholders to lay the groundwork for negotiations and support a \u201ccomprehensive and lasting\u201d solution. Fitto will also have to \u201c<strong>draw on his many years\u2019 experience in European governance<\/strong>, regional cooperation and institutional dialogue.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, <strong>Fitto \u201cis the most suitable person\u201d for this role<\/strong> and the European Commission\u2019s recognition is due to \u201chis knowledge of the issues facing the Mediterranean and his ability to mediate, particularly in view of the challenges that will need to be addressed,\u201d he stated at a press briefing on the sidelines of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/13\/israel-a-divided-hesitant-eu-moves-to-halt-trade-with-west-bank-settlements\/\">Foreign Affairs Council<\/a> in Brussels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Vice-President himself <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RaffaeleFitto\/status\/2076618849391128659?s=20\">commented on the appointment on X<\/a>: \u201c<strong>I am honoured to have been appointed by the European Commission as Special Representative for Cyprus<\/strong>. I would like to thank President Von der Leyen for the trust she has placed in me. I accept this role with a great sense of responsibility and reaffirm my full commitment,\u201d concluded Fitto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 The Executive Vice-President for Cohesion, Raffaele Fitto, has been appointed to a new role by the European Commission. The Italian Commissioner has been appointed as the Commission\u2019s Special Representative for Cyprus. In this capacity, Fitto will be tasked with contributing to&nbsp;resolving the Cyprus issue within the framework of the United Nations, in close [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":394428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809,25712,25774],"tags":[29704,26958,27194,34826,34827],"class_list":["post-459769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","category-general-news","category-in-brief","tag-cipro-en","tag-rappresentante-speciale-per-cipro","tag-vicepresidente-esecutivo-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459770,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459769\/revisions\/459770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}