Cyprus’ name is being vilified across Europe

AKEL on the government’s passport sale policy

AKEL Press Speaker’s Statement, Stephanou Stefanou,

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 22 January 2019, Nicosia

A few months ago, both the World Bank and the OECD published reports that pointed out Cyprus’s connection with the passport sale industry and the high risk of corruption this entails. A European Parliament inquiry subsequently drew the same conclusions.

According to a front page report published by “Fileleftheros”, but also by the “Cyprus Mail” newspaper, the European Commission has prepared a report targeting Cyprus, along with two other countries, for granting “golden passports”. The Commission even notes that it will “take action if necessary”.

The government is fully responsible for this state of affairs. In response to AKEL’s repeated public statements, as well as the ongoing press reports in the international press, the Anastasiades-DISY government isn’t listening at all and keeping silent. It evidently has done nothing to protect Cyprus, whose name is being vilifies, not only in Cyprus.

Moreover, the government’s insistence on handling the granting of citizenship as one of the country’s main sources of revenues leads to a model of growth without solid foundations and the creation of a “bubble” in the economy.

This policy, apart from the dangers for the Cyprus economy, also incites a negative impact on society. It has led to prices of real estate property and rents souring sky high and to an uneven distribution of benefits from the growth recorded. If the European Union does indeed proceed, as it warns it will do, to take measures that will prevent the continuation of this specific policy by the government, then the impact on the Cyprus economy and, by extension, on society will have a domino effect.

The Anastasiades-DISY government yet again leaves Cyprus and its citizens exposed to great dangers.