CYPRIOTS have become increasingly disillusioned with the benefits of the island’s accession to the EU, if a survey published yesterday is to be believed, with more than three quarters of respondents also complaining about not being properly informed of developments.
Their opinion on Cyprus’ EU accession was only one of many questions put to a sample of the island’s population for the ‘Cyprobarometer 5’, the fifth annual survey carried out on behalf of the Laiki Group’s Planning and Economic Research Service.
According to the report’s section on Cyprus and EU, “year by year, Cypriots appear to be less optimistic about Cyprus’ benefits from its accession.(but most) still have a positive view on the accession of their country.”
According to the survey, carried out between October 23 and December 4 last year, people believe the most important benefit from EU accession would be economic development, followed at a distance by national security. This showed a significant change from 1998’s ‘Cyprobarometer 3’, which reversed the concerns.
Some 79 per cent of the 1,000 permanent Cyprus residents aged between 18 and 75 questioned for ‘Cyprobarometer 5′ complained that they were not being adequately informed about developments linked to Cyprus’ accession.
Cypriots have also become less optimistic about the economy: the survey showed that only 18 per cent of the people questioned expected the economy to improve this year, while twice as many expect things to get worse.
The prevailing public feeling (81 per cent) is that the gap between rich and the poor will grow over the next few years, with most blaming insecurity caused by the Cyprus problem and the government’s economic policy.
Sixty per cent of those asked opposed privatisation of the water board, post-office and medical care while also disagreeing to a lesser degree to the privatisation of the airports, ports, Electricity Authority and Forest Industries.
When asked how they would invest a large amount of money, the largest number of those questioned (35 per cent) said they would put it in the bank, with 25 per cent saying they would buy land and 16 per cent giving the money to their children. Only two per cent would buy shares in public companies.
This was just one indication of bitter disappointment with the Stock Market, with most feeling that current problems would continue and 93 per cent believing that the Stock Market had failed.
Nine out of every 20 people questioned said they had invested in the Stock Exchange during 2000, almost twice as many as in 1999.
Most said they were in the game for long-term profit (42 per cent) with 34 per cent after short-term gain and 22 per cent seeing it as an alternative to bank deposits.
The majority of investors said they looked at the financial condition of a company they would invest in (61 per cent) and 40 per cent at the sector the company was part of; 28 per cent said they followed rumours while 27 per cent followed their broker’s advice.
Most financed their investments with personal savings with others resorting to bank or co-operative loans.
The most dominant problem in society remained the Cyprus problem, followed by unemployment, drugs, traffic accidents, inflation, crime and finally foreign workers.
Most (87 per cent) believed there was a decline in Cyprus’ institutions, with a significantly smaller proportion than in past surveys concerned about the police force.
Those questioned saw the ideal civil servant as someone who was kind, willing to help and instructive, who did not take advantage of his or her position for personal interests, and who was discrete.
Policemen, meanwhile, should resist illegalities and disclose scandals and act in accordance with the law, the majority felt.
On the Church, most believed that the clergy should preach love and set standards through their own way of life. A smaller percentage believed that they should also defend Greek values, beliefs and language with a yet smaller percentage feeling they should support charities.
Deputies should put the interests of the people before their own, the majority of those questioned said.
More Cypriots than ever before, meanwhile, have shown concern about the future.
Most fear that political and economic crises will be created by the discovery of natural gas in Cyprus seas, with other pessimistic predictions including more wars and violence in the world and people turning away from God.
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.
