CYPRUS’ chief EU negotiator George Vassiliou will request an extraordinary session of the House Plenum to clear a backlog of EU harmonisation bills before the House dissolves on April 19.
Vassiliou said yesterday that Cyprus had already been reprimanded by several EU services for falling behind on certain bills.
“It has caused me a lot of concern on a personal level that basic proposals on EU harmonisation, such as the regulation of telecommunications, which we are very far behind on, have been due for discussion for so long without ever being discussed.”
He said that “hundreds of promises” had been made that the telecoms chapter would be closed by the end of March, “and now we hear that discussion has been postponed until mid-April because of party obligations. What is more important for any Cypriot politician than ensuring Cyprus’ EU harmonisation and accession?” he wondered.
Vassiliou said the Plenum’s April 19 session, the last before it dissolves ahead of May’s parliamentary elections, had already been set aside for discussion on the national health scheme, an issue that is expected to require considerable debating time. “So I will ask the President of the House to arrange for a special Plenum for harmonisation issues to be voted on.”
President Glafcos Clerides on Sunday said he was confident that Cyprus would enter the EU in two years’ time.
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.
