CYPRUS is not looking for special treatment from Europe on its bailout terms but it does want equal treatment, Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said yesterday.
The comment came as the president of Eurgroup said the island’s financial bailout was unlikely to be agreed by the end of January, and following a spate of bad press in Germany over money laundering.
“I don’t think we will be in a position to find a solution during January. It will take longer,” said Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of eurozone finance ministers.
At the same time, Shiarly, together with Central Bank officials and members of the anti-money laundering unit (MOKAS) met with EU ambassadors in Nicosia to try and dispel the bad publicity, and to counter statements this week by several German politicians that their parliament would not approve a Cyprus bailout unless the island conformed to EU rules on transparency.
The onslaught continued yesterday. “If Cyprus is not ready to adopt EU rules on transparency and money laundering, then there won’t be any aid for Cyprus,” Michael Fuchs, a deputy leader for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament, told Reuters.
Similar comments came from a senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition and the main opposition Social Democrats on Wednesday.
Merkel herself said on Wednesday she expected the island’s bailout talks to take time, and there could be no “special conditions” for Cyprus. Her comment was related to privatisations, which the current government has refused to consider.
Responding to Merkel’s ‘special treatment’ comment, Shiarly said yesterday Cyprus expected “the same treatment other eurozone countries had when they had a similar economic problems.”
“Cyprus too would not have given help to any country that did not follow the EU rules,” the minister said, responding to Fuchs’ statements. “Consequently, this is a statement which I think could be enforced for any country and because we follow all the rules, I do not think it applies for us.”
Yesterday, the EU ambassadors were informed about the procedures Cyprus has in place to fight money-laundering and the latest developments regarding Cyprus’ application for financial assistance.
“I believe we have cleared this issue to a point where it will be difficult for someone to dispute us,” Shiarly said.
The minister said no ambassador had disputed the presentations openly but they did suggest that more attention be paid to certain points like the identities of the beneficial owners of companies registered in Cyprus and the exchange of information for tax purposes.
“We in Cyprus are in a position to reveal the beneficial owner of a company. In fact we can do this much better than other European counterparts,” Shiarly said.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou also responded to Merkel’s comments, echoing Shiarly on the notion of ‘special treatment’.
“What we are asking for is an expression of solidarity – which is a basic EU principle – towards a country which is the victim of a European decision to restructure Greek debt,” he said.
Merkel is due in Cyprus today to attend the summit of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Limassol, but is not scheduled to have contacts with the government.
Cyprus is likely to have a different government by the time a bailout deal is finalised. Elections are only weeks away. And although presidential candidate Nicos Anastasiades, leader of opposition DISY – a member of EPP- has pledged to sign a bailout, he has not committed to the state sell-off being demanded by Europe.
In an interview with Reuters yesterday, Anastasiades said privatisations were not a priority in his electoral manifesto.
He noted however, the asset sale provision in the draft deal struck between the government and international lenders to ensure the debt remained at sustainable levels.
“For reasons not relating solely to privatisations, I hope our debt levels will remain within sustainable levels. I am actually holding the outgoing government and the central bank responsible for this,” he said.
The ministry’s presentations to the EU ambassadors can be found here: http://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/mof.nsf/index_gr/index_gr?opendocument
