New company for euro campaign

THE FINANCE Ministry yesterday signed a contract with a media outfit that will launch an intensive campaign to particularly inform small and vulnerable groups on the introduction of the euro.

The deal for the £1 million campaign was signed with the consortium Mediacom, a statement from the Ministry said. Signatories included the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Christos Patsalides and Mediacom’s Loucas Grigoras.

Last month the Supreme Court declared null and void the controversial awarding of the euro information contract to the joint venture Action PR & Publications Ltd and Epistle.
The Advertising Agencies Association had protested the award but it was later upheld by the Tenders Review Board before ending up in the Supreme Court and delaying the campaign.
Cyprus hopes to join the euro on January 1 next year and fears were expressed that the campaign would get off the ground on time. The EU had even remarked on the issue on several occasions.

“There has been only a small delay in the campaign and we are quite confident we are on track and we are optimistic,” said Andreas Charalambous the Finance Ministry Director of Economic Planning who is overseeing the euro changeover.

“We said straight from the start that we would comply with the decision of the High Court therefore the successful bidder Action-Epistele would not be selected.”
Charalambous said the committee responsible for overseeing the euro introduction within the Ministry had convened and decided based on the evaluation of the proposals to go to the second successful bidder Mediacom.

“There was no legal objection of challenge so we are able to proceed,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Charalambous said the signing of the contract heralded a new phase in the euro campaign. He said 2006 had focused on general information and challenges and benefits by using conferences and seminars.

“We have worked very hard in 2006,” he said. “Now this phase will focus on groups needing information such as small businesses, pensioners and rural communities.”
Charalambous said the new phase would also include providing euro changeover information Turkish Cypriots.

“It will be more focused and provide more practical information,” he said.
In Information on the National Changeover Plan for the adoption of the euro can be found on the Finance Ministry’s website at:
http://www.euro.cy/euro/euro.nsf/dmlindex_en/dmlindex_en?opendocument

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.