With the encouragement of the British and Americans, in June 1999 the G-8 called upon the two leaders to engage in comprehensive negotiations without any preconditions. In November Alvaro de Soto was appointed the UNSG’s Special Adviser on Cyprus. Proximity talks started on 3 December aimed at preparing the ground for substantive negotiations. In December, despite the fact that some EU countries had reservations about accession without a settlement, because of the Greek blackmail, the Helsinki European Council Conclusions stated that accession would be made without settlement being a precondition. This disregarded the Copenhagen criteria and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, receiving strong reaction from TCs. In February 2000 Denktaş met German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Hamburg and shared with him the TC position. On 12 July 2000 de Soto presented his “Preliminary Thoughts”. Denktaş specified that the equal inherent rights and status of the TCs had to be affirmed if the ground was to be prepared for direct talks. In his opening statement on 12 September 2000 the UNSG stated that the equal status of the parties must be recognised explicitly in the comprehensive settlement. The reaction of GCs to this was vicious. This caused the TC side to withdraw from the talks, underlining that the ground had to be levelled for meaningful negotiation.