Kyriakides expected to take on EU’s health and food safety portfolio

Disy MP Stella Kyriakides who was chosen by President Nicos Anastasiades as Cyprus’ new commissioner in the EU is expected to be assigned the portfolio for Health and Food Safety, reports said on Saturday.

Kyriakides is replacing Christos Stylianides who was Cyprus’ commissioner since 2014. He currently has the post of Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Kyriakides is expected to be assigned as Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. The current post is held by Lithuania’s Vytenis Andriukaitis. The portfolio is responsible for matters of public health, food safety, animal health and plant health.

Although it is not expected for anything to change, there might be some small last-minute changes to the assignment of the portfolios by Tuesday when European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen will present her proposed College of Commissioners, CNA reported.

Kyriakides was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe following the resignation of Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) on October 6, 2017, and remained in office until January 2018.  She was the 30th President of PACE since 1949, the first Cypriot, and the third woman to take up the post.

Following Kyriakides move to her position in Brussels, her seat at the parliament will be given to Savia Orphanidou, who is the second in line to receive the post.

Orphanidou currently works at the finance ministry as an official and is a member of Disy.

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.