NOBODY could ever accuse the head of the Ministry of Commerce’s Energy Service Solon Kassinis being afraid to make his views known to the public. On the contrary, he seems unable to turn down an invitation to impart his wisdom on drilling for hydrocarbons and other energy issues. Yesterday morning he was speaking on radio and last night he was scheduled to appear on a current affairs show on CyBC television, presumably to inform viewers how the drilling at Block 12 was going.
In yesterday’s edition of Simerini, Kassinis made revelations about the government’s prevarication over whether to start drilling. He claimed that President Christofias and Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou were considering postponing the start of drilling at Block 12 by a couple of months so as not to put at risk the ongoing peace talks. They feared that the Turkish side could have pulled out of the talks and were prepared to pay compensation to Noble Energy in order put back the start of the drilling.
Kassinis reportedly opposed such a move and threatened to call a news conference to reveal all if the government cancelled the start of the drilling. Fearing the reaction such a revelation would spark, Christofias backed down, claimed Simerini. While he avoided directly confirming this allegation, Kassinis was quoted as saying: “What matters, is that we went ahead, that Cyprus has its national dignity and moves forward with international justice as its basis, without waiving its sovereign rights.”
This is how a politician, not a technocrat, speaks, but it appears Kassinis has misunderstood his role, which would also explain why he felt he was entitled to use blackmail to force the government to go ahead with the drilling. Since when can an unelected technocrat force decisions that could affect national security and diplomatic policy on the government? This is not a technocrat’s job the commerce minister should have made this clear to her subordinate.
The reaction was to be expected from a weak government the primary concern of which is to regain some of its lost popularity. Christofias and his minister may have believed that the postponement of the start of drilling, better served the interest of the country, but decided against it for fear of a public backlash. Kassinis, a pushy and strong-minded technocrat, played on this fear and secured the result he wanted, even though he had no right to be deciding government policy.
Has Kassinis told the government what steps it should take when the Turks sent their exploration boat into our economic exclusion zone, as has happened now? If things now go wrong, it would not be Kassinis whom people would blame but Christofias and it would serve the president right for his failure to stand by the decision he thought was the correct one.
