Hahn resigns as EU Cyprus envoy
Austrian diplomat Johannes Hahn on Monday resigned from his post as the European Commission’s envoy for the Cyprus problem, commission spokesperson for cohesion Maciej Berestecki said.
“Hahn has resigned from his position as the commission’s special envoy for the Cyprus problem due to other outstanding commitments. The commission respects Hahn’s decision and thanks him for his valuable contribution to the settlement process over the last year,” he said.
He added that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “will decide on the next steps in due course” regarding the question of appointing a new envoy.
Meanwhile, the Cyprus News Agency reported that Hahn informed both the commission and the United Nations of his decision in a letter.
Later on Monday, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the European Commission is “already taking the necessary steps with the aim of appointing a new envoy … in the immediate future”.
He said that Hahn had also sent a letter to Christodoulides to inform him of his resignation.
Hahn’s resignation comes a month after Belgian police raided properties belonging to the commission as part of an investigation into alleged “irregularities” in the sale of real estate assets conducted under the watch of Hahn.
British newspaper the Financial Times reported at the time that the investigation, which is being carried out by the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO), is centred on the sale of real estate belonging to the European Union which took place between 2019 and 2024, when Hahn was serving as budget commissioner.
It added that the EPPO’s investigation concerns a total of 23 buildings which were acquired from the EU by the Belgian sovereign wealth fund (SFPIM) in 2024 for a total of €900 million.
A European Commission spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail at the time that it was “aware of an ongoing investigation pursued by the EPPO concerning the sale of 23 commission buildings to the Belgian state in 2024”, and stressed that the commission believes that the law had been followed at all times.
“As far as the European Commission is concerned, the sale of the buildings followed established procedures and protocols, and we are confident that the process was conducted in a compliant manner,” the spokesperson said
Hahn was appointed as the commission’s envoy for the Cyprus problem in May last year and has visited the island twice, meeting both President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on both occasions.
Erhurman’s predecessor Ersin Tatar had been vehemently opposed to Hahn’s appointment, saying in July last year that “this appointment was made without the approval of the Turkish Cypriot side and in defiance of our will”.
The north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu, meanwhile, described Hahn’s appointment as a “provocative step”, and said that in appointing him, the EU had “once again revealed its biased stance on the Cyprus issue”.
Hahn served as budget commissioner in Ursula von der Leyen’s first commission, between 2019 and 2024, having previously served as regional policy commissioner under former commission presidents Jose Manuel Barroso and Jean-Claude Juncker, between 2010 and 2019.
Prior to that, he had served as Austria’s science minister between 2007 and 2010.