Yes, there are homeless people and the responsibility is yours! – Article by AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou

 

Sunday 21 April 2024, “Haravgi” newspaper

Some years ago, leading officials of the Right were preaching that there are no homeless people in Europe but only drunks. By doing so, they sought to shrug off any responsibility. They were trying, cunningly, to avoid discussing the neoliberal policies they were implementing, which were driving the people to impoverishment and uprooting them from their homes.

As AKEL, we have always fought for the protection of the human right to housing and warned that it is imperative that a comprehensive housing policy, the strengthening the welfare state and measures to protect borrowers in order to avoid the tragic situation in Europe with foreclosures and the armies of homeless people need to be taken. Unfortunately, we warnings fell on deaf ears.

Today, however, no one can claim that there are no homeless people. They are right next to us. Our fellow human beings. And so many others who live in fear of eviction, making desperate attempts to secure their rights against the dictatorship of the banks and the brutality of hedge funds. Now, in Cyprus too, the family home and the small family business have been turned into a commodity. Thus, the vise of forclosures is hanging over hundreds of families of breadwinners.

To strengthen the struggle that we, as AKEL, are waging in the Cypriot Parliament, we raised before the European Commission, under the urgent procedure, the problems we are facing in Cyprus, due to the existing legislative framework, which fully serves the banks, leaving borrowers exposed.

In his response, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Raiders made an important revelation, underlining that, as early as 2013, the European Commission had launched an infringement procedure against Cyprus because it found that the Cypriot authorities were not effectively applying the European Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms.

As not all complaints were resolved, the Commission reopened the infringement procedure in July 2019 and sent a supplementary warning letter to Cyprus. Indeed, as the Commissioner himself indicated, it has been shown that the administrative decisions of the Cyprus Consumer Protection Agency in relation to unfair contractual clauses are not enforceable and that only a few cases have been brought before the competent courts for injunctions or prohibitory injunctions. He made it clear that the Commission is currently assessing whether this situation undermines the practical effectiveness of Directive 93/13/EEC.

Another important issue that AKEL raised strongly before the Commission was the need to protect small commercial premises. More specifically, we tabled a question under the urgency procedure, asking the Commissioner responsible to give an answer as to what action the EU will take to protect small businesses in Cyprus from abusive clauses?

The answer we received from Commissioner Reynders was particularly important as it underlined that although contracts relating to professional activity do not fall within the scope of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms, member states are nevertheless free to decide to extend the scope of the national rules transposing the Directive to other contracts.

The Commissioner’s admissions and suggestions are particularly relevant today, when the number of complaints from our fellow citizens about abusive decisions by the banks is increasing, many households and small and medium-sized enterprises have been brought to their knees by the financial crisis and are facing the danger of being sold off, while the government is turning a blind eye.

It is now obvious that as long as Cyprus does not apply the European directives, it is flagrantly violating the rights of borrowers but, at the same time, it is exposed and risks once again being put on the European dock and subjected to sanctions.

As AKEL, fully aware of the limits and possibilities that exist in the EU, we continue our struggle in the European Parliament, as an arena of struggle in which we have already won small battles.

On 9 June, we strengthen the voice of the Left and continue, even more forcefully, to safeguard the human right to housing for all!