Under-fire minister angers MPs by missing meeting

TRADE and Industry Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou angered lawmakers yesterday after she refused to show up at a committee meeting, demanding an apology for the way she had been treated previously.

House Trade Committee chairman Lefteris Christoforou said Antoniadou said she would not attend “if MPs do not apologise in writing for the behaviour they displayed in a previous meeting”.

Christoforou described the minister’s action as “provocative and insulting” and did not rule out forcing Antoniadou to attend should she continue to insist.

DIKO MP Angelos Votsis said the committee did not think it had insulted the minister in any way and would look into how it would force the minister to attend when serious issues concerning her ministry are discussed.

The minister has been under fire since her decision to revoke an order that had delegated authority to handle aspects of gas exploration and exploitation to the chief of the energy department Solon Kassinis and a number of other energy service technocrats.

Since then, there have been disparaging comments for the minister in the media, while politicians disputed her competence.

In the committee session early in November, Antoniadou had to endure sarcasm and derogatory remarks as MPs questioned her wisdom in apparently sidelining Kassinis, seen by many as an authority on energy matters.

Independent MP Zacharias Koulias told Antoniadou: “We need a Minister of Commerce of Cyprus, not a Minister of Commerce and of…Turkey” –  an allusion to Antoniadou’s proposal, years ago, for energy collaboration between Turkey and Cyprus as an incentive for settling the political dispute.

Antoniadou had also supported a UN reunification blueprint known as the Annan plan, which was rejected by Greek Cypriots in 2004.

MPs are also mulling a bill to wrest the decision-making authority from the minister on hydrocarbon issues.

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