By George Psyllides
Finance Minister Harris Georgiades on Tuesday once more urged opposition MPs not to engage in any actions that will hurt Cyprus’ credibility, as they seemed poised to uphold a bill suspending the enforcement of foreclosures legislation.
But it did not appear they would heed the call.
Main opposition AKEL and the Green party have already said they will uphold the bill while DIKO and EDEK said they will announce their decision on Thursday at the plenum.
DIKO spokesman Angelos Votsis said however that he did not expect a change in the position of the majority.
Opposition parties suspended the repossessions law until the end of January on December 18 but President Nicos Anastasiades refused to sign it into law and sent it back to parliament.
Parliament will most likely reject the president’s referral but the bill is not expected to go to the Supreme Court as there was no time before the end of the month.
The suspension of the foreclosures law came right after international lenders released €350 million as part of the island’s €10 billion bailout. It prompted the International Monetary Fund to withhold its share of the tranche, an additional €85 million.
And this after they had initially suspended the payment in September after similar antics by opposition parties.
“This is precisely the risk; our country being unable to borrow from the troika and the markets, and this will happen for no real reason,” Georgiades said.
The goal was to restore the island’s access to the markets through the implementation of the bailout adjustment programme, he added.
“We do not want to find ourselves excluded again. The condition is credibility and trust.”
Georgiades reminded MPs that no repossessions could take place at present because vital regulations regarding the auction procedures had not been passed. And they will not be until the so-called insolvency framework was in place.
The framework is seen as a safety net for crisis-stricken vulnerable groups. Opposition parties claim they suspended the repossessions law until that was in place.
“When parliament is satisfied and ready to approve the insolvency framework, then we’ll bring the regulations,” the minister said. “The procedure cannot go on indefinitely but we have a lot of time at our disposal to examine the insolvency bills.”
The framework is made up of five bills – three are already before parliament while the fourth was expected on
Wednesday.
AKEL said it would not budge.
MP Yiannos Lamaris said the party would also look into whether it could re-table its proposal to suspend the law until the end of June.
