CYPRUS will need more civil servants to provide greater protection for citizens and the environment as it joins the European Union, Law Commissioner and head of EU affairs at the Legal Services, Leda Koursoumba, said yesterday.
Koursoumba told the Cyprus Mail that 840 laws, regulations and administrative orders had been prepared to implement the mass of legislation passed down from Brussels. Most of the legislation has already passed through parliament while the number of new employees required to deal with the increased workload is set out in this year’s budget at the Finance Ministry, said Koursoumba. The whole load of primary and secondary legislation prepared under the acquis communautaire will probably be enacted by March 2003, she added.
“When there is a new function in the acquis communautaire, we try to accommodate it within the existing department structures. But occasionally we have to create a new structure to accommodate the new competences,” said Koursoumba.
Departments where existing staff could not accommodate new obligations include the sections of the Health, Commerce, Labour and Agriculture ministries.
Kouroumba said concerns over increasing an already large public sector should not shadow the advantages of the acquis.
She listed some of the benefits of the huge volume of laws implemented. “Increased health protection and checks from maternal services and other health departments, greater protection for the consumer and more price checks by the Commerce Ministry, a more comprehensive social policy on employment, including protection for women and children, remuneration, and conditions of work.”
For the Agriculture Ministry, the commissioner said many obligations would be introduced concerning environmental issues and the number of controls from veterinary services.
“Many existing staff have already been organised to deal with the bulk of legislation requirements, and some have gone to Brussels to be trained. But the European Commission itself has told us that we need to expand various administrative sectors to accommodate all the competences,” she said.
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.
