House goes back to work

By Bouli Hadjioannou

THE HOUSE of Representatives yesterday voted in tax incentives for the stock market but stumbled on the complexities of translating laws from English into Greek.

In their first session after the summer recess, deputies gave unanimous approval to a tax incentive package to encourage new public companies to join the stock market.

The package is seen as a step in the direction of giving Cyprus’ newly established official stock exchange a boost.

But a proposed amendment on the use of English in the island’s laws proved a far trickier issue.

As tabled, the bill aimed to bypass pitfalls created by incorrect or imprecise translation of laws from English into Greek. It suggested that where mistakes were spotted, the original English text should supersede the Greek version.

For Edek president Vassos Lyssarides this was wrong. He said Greek and Turkish were the official languages of the Republic of Cyprus. If there were problems with the translation, they should be corrected. The alternative proposed by the bill effectively meant that Cypriots had to turn to a third country and a third language to interpret their laws.

Not so, argued Disy deputy president Panayiotis Demetriou, who chairs the House Legal Committee which unanimously recommended approval of the bill. The proposal was intended only as a practical, technical step to clear misunderstandings and facilitate the course of justice. The official languages remained unchanged.

Others, mostly lawyers, but also United Democrats president George Vassiliou and Akel general secretary Demetris Christofias spoke in a similar vein.

Put to the vote the bill was approved 23 votes to seven – with the two Edek deputies present, five Disy deputies and independent Marios Matsakis voting against.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.