THE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced a partial cabinet reshuffle with the appointment of two new cabinet ministers and the transfer of an existing member to another Ministry.
The announcement was made yesterday evening by government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides who said the new ministers would be sworn in tomorrow by President Tassos Papadopoulos and take up their duties immediately.
He said that Labour Minister Makis Keravnos would be moved to the Finance Ministry to replace Marcos Kyprianou, who was recently appointed as Cyprus’ EU Commissioner. The two new ministers appointed were Christos Taliadoros as a replacement for Keravnos at the Labour Ministry and Haris Thrassou as Minister of Communications and Works.
Thrassou will be replacing Kikis Kazamias, a minister appointed from coalition partner AKEL communist party. Kazamias resigned in the run up to the referendum on the Annan plan because he disagreed with the stance taken by Papadopoulos.
In an emotional speech on April 7, Papadopoulos urged Greek Cypriots to issue a resounding ‘no’ to the Annan plan.
Asked if Kazamias’ replacement was an AKEL man, since that Ministry was allocated to the party after the presidential elections, Chrysostomides said that would be a “reasonable conclusion”.
He added the new ministers were not party executives and emanated from the “wider collaboration that supports the government”.
Until today, new Finance Minister Keravanos was the Minister of Labour. Before that he held managerial positions abroad and in Cyprus at various posts relating to research and planning, and was a senior member of several economic and business organisations. He is also widely published in academic circles in Cyprus and abroad.
Taliadoros has a long history with the Labour Ministry, working for ten years at the Industrial Relations Service. He has also held a senior position at the Finance Ministry and has served as Director of Cypriot Academy of Public. Taliadoros also participates in the social welfare committee of the European Banking Federation, a member of the board of Cyprus Airways and the Apollonia private hospital.
Thrassou, a civil engineer, is a member of the Civil Engineers and Architects Association where he was on the board in the nineties.
He also contributed to the founding of the Technical Chamber (ETEK), was one of the first members of the board and served as vice president from 1993 to 1996. He is currently chairman of the Urban Council of Cyprus.
