Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades is trying to get Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited to address the heads of the 28 European Union nations at one of their upcoming meetings in Brussels.

Anastasiades would also like to invite Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to make a similar speech at a separate event. The Cypriot president discussed the possibility with Netanyahu during his visit to Israel on June 15, and with Abbas in a phone call on June 19.

A senior Israeli official familiar with the Anastasiades-Netanyahu meeting said the Cypriot president told Netanyahu that reports the EU leaders received during their monthly meetings were going through the “filters” of foreign ministers who visit Israel and report their impressions. The Israeli official quoted the Cypriot president as saying, “I think it’s fitting that you and Abbas come and present your positions directly to all the leaders of the member states.”

Since his visit to Israel, Anastasiades has been speaking with various officials to advance his idea. Last Wednesday he met in Brussels with EU President Donald Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland who is considered relatively close to Netanyahu. The Cypriot president told Tusk that inviting the two leaders to Brussels in the coming months, even if they come separately, could help restart the peace process. Tusk was reportedly excited by the idea and said he would advance it.

EU's Mogherini pushing for new talks

Anastasiades also discussed the idea with EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who has been trying to get the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations restarted and the EU more involved in the process. Anastasiades also got the blessing of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi for the initiative.

On Friday Anastasiades spoke again to both Netanyahu and Abbas to make sure that both are indeed interested in coming to Brussels to brief the EU leaders. A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu gave Anastasiades the green light to proceed. Abbas also responded positively.

A senior Israeli official stressed that the plan is still at a preliminary stage and no date has been set for Netanyahu’s visit to Brussels, but he believed that the EU countries would agree to the visit and that it would eventually come to fruition. If so, it would be the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to EU headquarters in Brussels in 20 years; the last to make such a visit was Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Relations between Israel and the EU have been very tense over the past few years because of the stalemate in the peace process with the Palestinians. Both the EU and several of its member states have been highly critical of Netanyahu’s policies since he became prime minister in 2009 and some have imposed sanctions on the settlements. There are currently internal EU discussions on possibly intensifying the sanctions and on ordering that products produced in the settlements be marked as such before being sold in European supermarkets.

Despite this, however, ties with Cyprus have undergone a dramatic improvement in recent years – a result of Israel’s deteriorating relations with Turkey, which has brought Israel closer to countries like Cyprus and Greece, which have severe disputes with Turkey. The discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea and bilateral cooperation in this realm has also tightened Cypriot-Israeli ties.