House extends suspension of foreclosures (again)

By Elias Hazou

BY unanimous vote, parliament on Thursday extended yet again the suspension of foreclosures on mortgaged properties.

The freeze on the foreclosures law is now extended to April 2, by which time MPs hope the insolvency framework, seen as a safety net for crisis-stricken vulnerable groups, will be ready.

The previous suspension of the law expired on March 19, and as the insolvency framework was not ready in its entirety, the parties rushed to renew the freeze.

The new suspension was based on a bill drafted by the socialist EDEK party. Earlier at the plenum, a bill tabled by AKEL – proposing suspension until July 1 – was defeated.

Implementation of effective foreclosures legislation – designed to help banks recover non-performing loans – is a condition of Cyprus’ bailout deal.

The law was passed late last year, but has not come into effect since due to successive suspensions.

Cyprus’ international lenders have said no more bailout money will be disbursed until the matter is resolved.

The political opposition here says they want to protect distressed borrowers from losing their homes; the banks in turn stress that they do not intend to engage in mass foreclosures.

While MPs were voting on bills, outside parliament a group of businessmen protesting against foreclosures got into a confrontation with police.

The demonstrators, belonging to the alliance of small businesses and self-employed workers (SYMEA), managed to push aside the railings set up by police, but the situation was quickly contained.

After tensions defused, a delegation met with the House Speaker and handed him a petition, where they demanded that all debts held by needy families be cancelled for the duration of the economic recession.

They also demanded that Cypriot banks be barred from selling distressed loans to ‘foreign interests’.

The group were especially aggrieved with MPs, who they said should resign.

SYMEA head Stavros Alambritis went a step further, calling on the President to resign as well.

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.