The funds for enlightenment are intended for the projection of Cyprus and its struggle not for any communicative self-promotion and election campaigns

Statement by AKEL MP Giorgos Koukoumas after the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee

22 November 2022

We discussed today in the Parliamentary Foreign and European Affairs Committee the issue of the use of funds allocated for enlightenment [on the Cyprus problem and our struggle] by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have before us, firstly, the Audit Office’s 2022 special report. Secondly, the Foreign Ministry’s own admissions on the issue. Thirdly, the descriptions of the payments for these funds over the last four years that have been submitted today by the Foreign Ministry. Serious questions arise as to how the DISY government has used these enlightenment funds, or at least a large proportion of them, over the past few years.

The enlightenment funds are intended for the promotion of Cyprus and Cyprus’ positions on the struggle it is waging and on the Cyprus problem. They are not intended for any communication campaigns, nor for any election campaigns, nor for self-promotion and public relations purposes by whoever is in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Anyone who reads the list of payments will realise that many questions arise and will wonder whether many of these expenditures genuinely served the purpose of enlightenment and the promotion of the Cyprus problem and our positions.

We have put specific questions to the Foreign Office and will await the answers.