Statements by Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 20th March 2017, Nicosia
On the budget of the Cyprus Ports Authority:
The debate on the Cyprus Ports Authority’s budget continued today in the Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs of the House of Representatives.
I have to say it was an interesting debate because as a result of our questions and the answers we received from the Cyprus Ports Authority a number of interesting facts have been revealed
First: The Ports Authority is not aware of any feasibility study conducted on the new environment and new roles assumed by the Cyprus Ports Authority after the privatization of the Port of Limassol works.
Second: From 2011 until 2015 the state received 90 million Euros from the Cyprus Ports Authority.
Third: At the same time as the government proceeded with the privatization of the Port no one knows how much the state’s revenues from private interests will be.
We recall that when the government wanted to proceed with the privatization issue, the competent Ministers were saying that over a period of 25 years the state would receive 2.1 billion Euros. During the recent debate in the House of Representatives, because of the anomalous situation that the port of Limassol had subsequently got into, the calculations were reduced to around 1.2 billion Euros, while in today’s debate not even the Ports Authority itself could calculate how much the revenues might be for the state from the agreement concluded by the government.
We cannot but comment in a negative way about the fact that in its drive it the government has privatized the works a profitable semi-governmental organization, despite the fact that the President of the Republic had pledged in writing that he wouldn’t privatize any profitable semi-governmental organizations.
On the National Health Scheme:
There is a great deal of talk about the GHS on the occasion of the statements made by the Secretary of the Pancyprian Public Employees Trade Union (PA.SY.DY) and the proposal announced by the President of the Democratic Party. As AKEL, we consider that if the debate is reopened on issues that were agreed and discussed it is then that new problems and new delays will be provoked in promoting the implementation of the GHS.
I recall that the political and social forces had reached an agreement since 2001 as regards the nature and context of the GHS. In addition, AKEL recalls that the leaders of the political parties met at the Presidential Palace recently and agreed on a number of issues related to the GHS. Furthermore, there are two bills pending on the GHS in the House.
We believe that if we now reopen a new debate on the issues related to the GHS the only thing we will manage to do is to cause additional delay in the GHS.
As AKEL we want the GHS to proceed as agreed and to be promoted as soon as possible, because the public health sector is already at breaking point as a result of the austerity policies being pursued by the government in the health sector too.
On the Government’s stand towards the European Commission:
The government and ruling forces have discovered very late that they can disagree with the European Commission’s opinions and policies. We as AKEL have long been saying that every state is entitled and must defend its vital interests, even in disagreement and opposition to the EU and the European Commission. But, unfortunately, when the government and ruling forces wanted to impose their neoliberal anti-social policies they were approving as divine law the orders emanating from EU and the European Commission and were using them as an excuse for not given the opportunity to the political forces and our people in general to defend its own vital interests.
This must be our guiding beacon so that we can move forward as a country. That is to say, the defence of our vital interests at times also clashes with the European Commission and the policies it wants to impose on EU member states.
