THE AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou is perfectly entitled to complain about the illegality of the appointment of negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis as the Republic’s permanent representative at the United Nations. According to a law passed in 2013, the Greek Cypriot negotiator cannot perform any other duties apart from those assigned to him by the president regarding the Cyprus problem.
His posting to the UN was a clear breach of the law and the government was quite guilty of amateurism in announcing his appointment. In trying to defend this decision, government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said that the government was preparing an amendment to the law that would allow Mavroyiannis to have a dual role and not restrict him exclusively to the position of negotiator.
In a well-governed state, in which the government did things according to the law, the amendments would have been approved before the appointment was announced and not the other way around. Of course, in a well-governed state, the law would not be amended for the sake of individual civil servants. This would not be first time a law was amended to satisfy the needs of a senior official at the foreign ministry. Some 20 years ago, the law setting a four-year limit on the service of officials at posts abroad was amended so that our then well-connected, representative at the UN could serve at the UN for five years.
In the case of Mavroyiannis, he did not give up the role of negotiator so that the government could carry on with the pretence that it was prepared for a resumption of the talks. In fact, this was the reason for Akel’s criticism – it felt that sending Mavroyiannis to New York indicated the government was not committed to a resumption of the talks. In a statement, it mockingly asked, “how would he participate in contacts, consultations and discussions on the Cyprus issue? Via WhatsApp, Viber or Skype?”
All this is an example of how our politicians buy into the Cyprus problem theatre. The real offence, for which Anastasiades deserved criticism, was that he kept Mavroyiannis in the post of negotiator, for 21 months – from July 2017 until March 2019 – with nothing to do. The state was paying Mavroyiannis for 21 months to be on holiday. In these 21 months there were no negotiations and zero prospects for a resumption of the talks, but the government still had an unemployed negotiator on the payroll. The Turkish Cypriot side, in contrast, terminated the services of its negotiator, Ozdil Nami.
Having an experienced, senior civil servant on holiday for 21 months, is what Akel should have been criticising Anastasiades about and not because he has finally given him a job for which he will have to do some work.
