Regulation of state officials
- Amending constitution to clarify for what offences the President of the Republic may be prosecuted.
- Lifting members of parliament’s immunity for all offences, but preserving their freedom of speech during the exercise of their duty.
- Legally regulating ministers’ and independent officials’ civil and criminal responsibilities for actions and omissions committed while on duty.
- More state officials will be obliged to file income statements at fixed intervals. This includes commissioners, judges, and the heads of parties that are not in parliament. A committee of auditors will be set up to investigate claims and publicly report any false claims.
- Parliament has already passed a government proposal to make binding the reports of committees of inquiries.
- Parliament has also accepted a government proposal to allow the attorney-general, and not just Cabinet, to appoint criminal investigators.
Anti-corruption measures
- Tenders in the wider state sector will be fully justified and made public.
- A committee will be set up per ministry to monitor and implement suggestions and reports as per the auditor-general’s annual report.
- Departments in the wider state sector, including semi-governmental bodies, will be obliged to submit to parliament a full annual report on the action taken as per the auditor-general’s report, alongside with their annual budget submissions. Municipalities and communities will be obliged to comply with the auditor-general’s suggestions and will be penalised for non-compliance.
- Minutes will be taken during any meeting in the wider state sector where administrative decisions are taken. Such decisions will be published in the relevant authority’s website. Exceptions are in place for matters of state security, defence or international matters that involve confidential or pertain to personal data.
- The Ombudswoman will now be able to act as mediator with relevant services and will publish and report to Cabinet departments’ failure to comply with her recommendations.
- The criminal and civil responsibilities of state officials will be defined for any damaged caused by inexcusable negligence or fraudulent behaviours that are part of complicity.

Terms in office
- The President may only remain in power for two consecutive terms, as may all elected officials with executive power such as mayors and community leaders.
- Members of parliament, municipal and community councillors may only serve for up to three consecutive terms.

Meritocracy
- For hiring in the state or semi-governmental sector: written exams will be anonymous to the examiners. Interviews will be given less importance than a academic qualifications or work experience.
- Candidates for hiring and promotion committees will be presented in a public hearing in Parliament, to promote transparency.
- Failed candidates will be given a full report on the reasons they were rejected.
- All members of the public will be given access to all public documents with the exception of international treaties of a confidential nature or involving personal data and matters of state security, defence.
- An independent hiring and promotion committee will be set up for semi-governmental organisations, relieving the boards of the responsibility and allowing boards’ appointments to be on the basis of merit and not political expediencies.
Civil service reform
- The Commissioner for civil service reform Emanuella Moushioutta Lambrianidou will present an action plan within three months to reform the state sector.
- Her mandate includes the following:
- Simplifying structures and procedures .
- Merging, abolishing or strengthening services as needed.
- Modernising the appraisal system for state officials
- Using modern technology and e-government
- Training.
- Public-private collaborations.
- Improving services to the public.
- Reducing administrative expenses.
- Adopting a code of ethics on transparency.
- A timeframe to implement the action plan by December 2013 at the latest.
- As part of a bill, goals will be set per ministry aiming to measure quality and efficiency and improve administrative procedures and simplify decision-making processes.
- A separate bill will institutionalise obligations of public law entities present action plans that are compatible with government policy and regulate the jurisdiction and duty of board members, including civil and criminal responsibilities.
- A bill for the creation of junior ministries to enable the state to work more effectively and smoothly has been submitted to parliament.

Civil society

- The public or interest groups can submit proposals to parliament if they manage to collect at least 10,000 statements of support.
- Voting registration will be automatic but failing to vote will be decriminalised.
- If parties agree, horizontal and electronic voting will be adopted.

Justice
- Administrative courts will be set up to alleviate the Supreme Court’s work load.
- District courts will be supported to increase efficiency.
- A special court will be set up to examine claims by bonds’ holders claiming to have been misled by banks.
- The office of a bank mediator will be set up in May to take up cases that would otherwise go to district courts.
- Administrative court decisions will be binding as long as they deal with the essence of the appeals. 

TODAY the legislature will vote on the deeply unpopular memorandum of understanding which, in theory, should be passed with DIKO and DISY votes. We say in theory because nobody knows whether all deputies of these two parties would show up and, if they do, that they would vote in favour of the memorandum’s ratification.
Without the legislature’s approval there would be no financial assistance from the EU and IMF, the state would default on its debt repayments and would have no money to meet its financial obligations, such as paying public sector salaries. In short, there is no alternative despite the stupid insistence of the demagogues that we should disengage from the memorandum.
Yesterday, the AKEL Central Committee proposed the disengagement from the memorandum and exit from the euro, but warned that the exit should be negotiated with the Eurogroup. First, however, there had to be a “productive political and social dialogue” on the matter which would subsequently be put to a referendum. This process would take months and it is not much help to today’s vote.
EDEK, the other anti-memorandum party, has not come up with an alternative either. It will hold a forum next month to discuss the country’s options and submit a proposal in June. Its former presidential candidate Giorgos Lillikas, meanwhile, held a meeting of his supporters on Sunday at which he announced the establishment of an anti-memorandum movement. His speech was the familiar mix of heroic defiance and misinformation offering no alternative other than an implausible claim that the Chinese had offered president Anastasiades €10 billion to pre-buy our natural gas – the natural gas we have yet to find.
Both AKEL and Lillikas have called on people to join the anti-memorandum, protest gathering outside the legislature today. “People need to send a resounding message of resistance to the catastrophic consequences of the Eurogroup decisions,” said the party spokesman; Lillikas also spoke of resistance.
The truth is that any resistance now would be meaningless as all the austerity measures have been approved, the resolution of Laiki has been completed and confidence in the banking sector has been shattered. Rejection of the memorandum today would mean that we will receive no funds and the state would be declared bankrupt. Would anyone take such a risk based on Lillikas’ promise that the Chinese have offered us €10 billion?
But given the irresponsible populism that governs politics could anyone rule out the possibility of deputies rejecting the memorandum today, especially if they are urged to do so by AKEL’s protesters? We just hope that the parties would show a sense of responsibility and approve the memorandum, because rejecting it would make things much worse than they are now.  
 

STATE officials, including the President, will no longer be immune from prosecution, nor will they be able to stay in office indefinitely, President Nicos Anastasiades announced yesterday in an gesture aimed at restoring the public’s trust in government following the banking fiasco.
Recommended actions include forcing state officials to give regular income statements, publishing and justifying public tenders, implementing and monitoring the auditor-general’s reports, and defining state officials’ criminal and civil responsibilities.
The public has been right to judge politicians for never fulfilling their promises as soon as their electoral ambitions are met, said Anastasiades, who took over government in February. “I not only want to contradict this rule, but I want to  implement every electoral commitment I have undertaken.”
He said that June 15 was the final deadline for completing all outstanding bills that Parliament will need to approve. The proposals have already been discussed by the cabinet or prepared as bills, Anastasiades said.
Cypriots are bracing themselves for years of austerity following a harsh and painful bailout that has resulted in the second biggest bank, Laiki, shutting down and people’s bank deposits raided in the largest, the Bank of Cyprus.
Anastasiades said that the consequences of the economic crisis now made it imperative that they as the government substantiate “what were up until now empty promises”.
“That state has been accumulating faults for decades,for which we are all responsible,” Anastasiades said. Inaction, bureaucracy and lack of transparency have created abuse of the rules of good management, lack of meritocracy, corruption and complicity, he said.
“Despite its high maintenance cost, (the state) has been unable to provide the range and quality of service that a modern European state should offer.”
Public distrust in government has been growing over the last few years with almost 91 per cent believing corruption is a major problem in Cyprus, Transparency International Cyprus said last week. According to the organisation’s polls, the public’s perception of corruption grew between 2010 and 2012, when the economy started obviously deteriorating and a munitions’ blast in Mari in 2011 devastated the country’s largest power station and killed 13 people. Former president Demetris Christofias ignored the political responsibility attributed to him by a state-appointed inquiry. Thousands of Cypriots called for Christofias’ resignation and his prosecution, holding him ultimately responsible for the inability of the state machine to take timely action to prevent the explosion. But a firm belonging to Anastasiades’ relatives transferred money out of Cyprus right before the banking system came to a halt in mid-March. His family has said the transactions were part of normal businesses. 
Anastasiades has asked a committee of inquiry into the economy to investigate him with scrupulous attention.
And he yesterday proposed to have written in the constitution the nature of criminal and civil responsibilities of state officials, including the President, his ministers and independent officials.
Currently, the constitution states that the president is only liable to prosecution in the event of high treason or moral turpitude, but does not define what that means.
The constitution also protects members of parliament, who have been caught using that protection to dodge fines. They will no longer be immune from prosecution about “any offence” although their freedom of speech and action during their duty will be safeguarded, Anastasiades said.
The President said that the House had already accepted two measures to increase accountability: allowing the attorney-general – and not just Cabinet – to appoint criminal investigators as he sees, and making the findings of inquiries on state officials binding.
But in order to stop the complicity that arise from entrenched politicians, deputies will be allowed to serve in Parliament for up to three consecutive terms (total of fifteen years) and the President for up to two consecutive terms (total of ten years), Anastasiades said.
And after years of the auditor-general’s reports on delays and waste across the board, each ministry will be obliged to install an internal body to monitor and implement reports and suggestions and report on their compliance when discussing their yearly budget in parliament. Municipalities and local authorities will be penalised for not complying with the auditor-general’s report, Anastasiades said.
Anastasiades also said that the Commissioner for civil service reform Emanuella Moushioutta Lambrianidou is expected to present a modernisation master plan, while the public will be able to submit bills to parliament on collection of at least 10,000 supporting signatures. 
Political parties yesterday praised Anastasiades’ proposals as positive.
Most of the measures require of Parliament to pass bills, change the constitution and amend existing legislation.
      

President Nicos Anastasiades during his address yesterday

Parliament approved on Tuesday an EU bailout including provisions to impose substantial losses on bank depositors and wind down one of the island's biggest banks.

By a show of hands, 29 lawmakers approved ratification of the bailout bill and 27 opposed.

The government had warned that without approval the economy was in imminent danger of default. Cyprus  is expected to get the first disbursement of a total of 10 billion euros in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May.

PARLIAMENT was meeting on Tuesday on whether to back a bailout imposed by its EU partners, with approval likely from a thin majority against mounting calls for the island to exit the euro.

Lawmakers were meeting in an extraordinary session to ratify the terms of the aid, which is conditional on Cyprus winding down its second-largest bank and imposing heavy losses on uninsured depositors in another. Voting was expected on Tuesday afternoon.

No single party has a majority in the 56-member parliament, and the government is counting on support from members of its three-party centre-right coalition which has 30 seats in total. It needs 29 votes for the bill to pass.

"We have had enough of delusions. We don't have another choice. Whoever has one should tell us what it is," Cypriot government spokesman Christos Stylianides told state radio earlier in the day.

Communist AKEL, in government until it lost presidential elections in February, said it planned to vote against the bill. It has 19 seats in parliament. The socialist EDEK party, with 5 seats, also said it would reject it.

AKEL, which had made the initial application for financial aid in June 2012, said onerous terms offered by Cyprus's EU partners were compelling enough for the island to seek alternative sources of funding.

"Cyprus's only option is a solution outside the loan agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding. Seeking such a solution is possibly tantamount to a decision to exit the euro," it said in a statement. 

Protesters outside the House (Christos Theodorides)

FOR SEVERAL years now Father Joseph Coleman has been serving Greek Orthodox Liturgy (Mass) in English in Nicosia. 

Having been located at (the old) St. Nikolaos Church  in Lakatamia, he is now and for the past year at St. Panteleimonos Church in Makedonitisa, where in the under-ground chapel of All Saints of Cyprus, he serves an English speaking faithful. 

"The members of our Community are from at least 12 different countries. They range from North America (Canada, USA), Europe (Russia, UK, Spain, Latvia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus), Asia (Iran/Persia, Pakistan, China), and Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Guinea, Sudan, Sierra Leon)," said Father Joseph. 

"This Mission was started with the goal of serving the repatriated (English Speaking Orthodox Christians) from abroad, but grew into much more. We have people of all kinds that have become Greek Orthodox and use English as their common language.""Some of our members are married to Cypriots, some are just foreigners that have converted to the Holy Orthodox Faith." 

Father. Joseph himself is a convert from Anglicism. 

He will be holding Holy Week services in English tonight at 7pm, tomorrow morning – Holy Thursday - at 8:30am and in the evening at 7pm. On Good Friday services will be at 4pm and at 7:30pm for the Lamentations or Epitaphios. 

Also, late Saturday night 11:45pm until 2am the Service of Holy Pascha will take place. . 

LOCAL neuroscientist Nikos Konstantinou, 34, was named the national winner of the FameLab competition on Sunday and will represent Cyprus at the International Final at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK in June.

FameLab Cyprus is a national talent competition to find the best new talent in science communication and it is based on the successful FameLab UK model. FameLab Cyprus began in 2011 when it received first place in the international final and second place in 2012.

Konstantinou presentation was built on centuries of magic tricks and more recent psychological phenomena to demonstrate the limits of human perception. He also presented how our subjective reality of the world can greatly differ from the reality of the person sitting next to us, depending on what each person pays attention to.

“My presentation was based on change blindness and inattentional blindness. Change blindness shows that we are blind to a change in the environment when all our attention is occupied. This is because we have a limited capacity for attention. Inattentional blindness is the lack of ability to recognise when something appears or disappears from your fiend of view when your attention is occupied. This is an elegant form of attention control and magicians have been using these techniques for centuries to trick people,” Konstantinou said.

Konstantinou expressed his enthusiasm about FameLab and explained that this competition gives scientists the opportunity to showcase their work and receive feedback from the public. “The government gives no funding for scientific experiments in Cyprus and researchers do not get paid. This is why FameLab is very important. It reaches parts of the public which otherwise may not have been interested in science. If people start enjoying science and start requesting to see more then maybe the government will consider giving more than 0.25 per cent of the average GDP a year on science,” Konstantinou said.

Konstantinou received his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London in 2011. He is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at the Centre for Applied Neuroscience at the University of Cyprus. He designs behavioural experiments combined with neuro-imaging techniques to investigate how different types of working memory interact with attention to effect our subjective perception of the world, using healthy populations and patients.

Second and third place were awarded to biologist Lucia Protopapa and physicist Alexandra Michael.  This year’s finalists had chosen a mind-expanding selection of topics to bring under the microscope – from ‘the road to Divided Attention’, through to ‘Roller Coasters and your body’.

The three finalists received a cash award. The winner received €2,000 plus the opportunity to represent Cyprus in the Science Festival, the second runner-up received €1,000 and the third runner-up received €500.

The three-minute presentations were judged according to FameLab’s golden rule of the 3C’s, which are, Content, Clarity and Charisma. The jury team consisted of Dr Vassilios Tsakalos, Director General, Research Promotion Foundation, Dr Nicos Peristianis, Executive Dean, University of Nicosia, Lina Zeniou Papa, Actress/Director & owner of a theatre school for children and Dr Despo Fatta Kasinou, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus.

The FameLab winners from all participating countries will compete in June at the International Final at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK. 

FameLab Cyprus is organised by the British Council Cyprus and the European Office of Cyprus and co-organised by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

“We heard about FameLab UK and asked if Cyprus could take part. We have done very well during the last two competitions and hope we will also do so this year. We received first place in 2011 and second place in 2012,” Monica Tantele, project coordinator at the British Council Cyprus and coordinator for the FameLab competition.

In order to take part in the competition you must be a Cypriot citizen and be 18 years-old and above. “Each country decides what age group should be included in the competition and we decided that it should not have a cut-off age,” Tantele said.

“When we organise the competition we firstly send press releases to the media to be circulated in the newspaper and to scientific institutions. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation also broadcasts advertisements about the event. A short-list of applicants then go on to a preliminary round. Ten applicants are then chosen to go onto the final,” Tanele added.

These ten finalists go through a science communication master class for one and a half days. The master class is lead by trainers from the United Kingdom who are the best in their areas. During this class the finalists gain valuable skills to communicate their work to a non-scientific audience. This helps change the common stereotype of scientists being geeks and also justifies public funding for their research.

Sponsors of the competition are the University of Nicosia, the University of Cyprus and Top Kinisis Travel. Media sponsors are the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation and Politis newspaper. The 

competition is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

FameLab is an initiative of the Cheltenham Festivals started in 2005 in partnership with NESTA and has grown into the world’s leading science communication competition. A partnership with the British Council since 2007 has seen the competition go global with more than 5,000 young scientists and engineers participating in over 23 different countries. NASA has license to deliver the competition in the USA. 

For more information about the British Council go to www.britishcouncil.org

To learn more about FameLab Cyprus go to http://www.famelabcyprus.com 

National winner Nikos Konstantinou

THE HEALTH and veterinary services have begun their annual inspection of retail food prior to Easter.

The food checks are performed to make sure that products are suitable for consumption and that the point of sale fulfills health safety requirements.

“We started checks in supermarkets, bakeries, cake shops and groceries. Our aim is to check all seasonal products for the Easter period,” Christos Christou, acting director of the health services said.

Health inspectors are told to inspect cleanliness where food is sold, and as many shops may be working with less staff in an attempt to cut expenses, they may not have enough people to properly clean the area. 

Inspectors are also checking if the temperatures of fridges and freezes are at the proper levels as shop owners may also be cutting back on electricity usage, which could affect perishable goods.

“Checks will continue throughout the week until Saturday. Until now we have not noticed any serious problems and we hope that this continues. We have only come across minor problems to do with the labeling of products, which either did not display the expiry date or the ingredients. These products were withdrawn from the shelves and will be recalled when they have the proper labeling. Some products that were out of date have also been removed,” Christou said. 

He said checks on meat and cheese for flaounes began on April 25 and will run until May 10.”Slaughterhouses are working day and night to meet the demand for meat during the Easter period. That is why the veterinary services check all meat, stamps meat suitable for consumption and destroys meat that is not,” George Kyriakidis, head of  the veterinary services said. The veterinary services also visit butcher shops and supermarkets to inspect the meat. 

Cheese to make flaounes, the traditional Cypriot cheese pie, is also inspected. “We have collected around 280 samples of cheese from all dairy factories across Cyprus. The factories also conduct their own tests to make sure their cheese is suitable,” Kyriakidis added.

ONE DAY last October, a memory stick containing special software for deleting data was placed into a desktop computer at Bank of Cyprus (BoC).

Within minutes, 28,000 files were erased, according to investigators who had wanted to copy the data for an official report into the collapse of the Cypriot banking system.

The deleted files included emails sent and received in a crucial period in late 2009 and early 2010 when Bank of Cyprus spent billions of euros buying Greek bonds - at a time when international banks were cutting exposure to the heavily indebted Athens government.

Those Greek bonds lost most of their value in last year's EU-sanctioned bailout, playing a key role in plunging Cyprus into an economic maelstrom. When banks turned to Cyprus' own cash-strapped government for help in plugging holes in their balance sheets, Nicosia too needed an international rescue.

Now people who have lost money and face years of grim austerity, want to know who decided to plough their savings into the doomed public accounts of their bigger neighbour, and why. But answers are proving elusive, not helped by the mysterious wiping of data at BoC.

There has been public speculation about backroom diplomatic deals or misplaced solidarity with Cypriots' fellow Greek-speakers.

But executives at the failed banks argue that Greek bonds seemed a good investment at the time - though that view is at odds with that of many bankers elsewhere in Europe, who were doing all they could to limit their own exposures to Greece.

The confidential report, prepared for the Cypriot central bank by global consultants Alvarez and Marsal, found that Bank of Cyprus had been willing, from 2009 onwards, to invest in risky, high-yielding Greek debt in a bid to offset an erosion of its balance sheet from rising non-performing loans.

The report, which Reuters has seen, alleges that bank executives may not have revealed details of bond purchases to board directors, avoided showing losses on the bonds, and may later have delayed external investigation of the bond purchases.

In December 2009, managers told media and their own board that most of the bank's Greek bondholdings had been sold - but the bank did not then disclose that it had almost immediately bought more.

BoC has declined to comment on the report. Petros Clerides, the attorney-general to whom a copy of the report was delivered, also declined any comment.

Much attention in the crisis has hitherto focused on allegations of poor management at Cyprus' other big lender, Laiki Bank, formerly Marfin Popular. But the Alvarez and Marsal report, whose broad findings emerged earlier this month, raises questions, too, about the former management of BoC.

The report noted "a culture whereby senior management decisions were not challenged".

Michael Olympios, who heads an investors' association, Pasexa, that has complained of mismanagement, said: "There was clear corporate governance failure here, and a lack of disclosure to shareholders."

More broadly, he added: "If one wants to summarise the mess in our banking system, Lord Acton sums it up; power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Many in Cyprus, including hundreds of Russians who placed their faith in its once booming offshore banking products, feel they have been unfairly treated; bank depositors in Greece suffered no losses when that country was bailed out.

"They should have bought from different governments rather than just Greece," said Demetris Syllouris, who heads Parliament's ethics committee which is looking into the affair.

"This caused 80 percent of the problem we are in."

Aside from the wisdom of its investment strategy, it is the communication of this strategy to investors that is in question.

On December 10, 2009, Yiannis Kypri, a general manager at BoC, told a Cypriot website, Stockwatch, that the bank had "minimal exposure to Greek sovereign debt" after reducing its holdings from €1.8 billion to €0.1 billion.

The same day, according to the investigators' report, Andreas Eliades, then BoC’s group chief executive officer, instructed his treasury department to begin new purchases of such bonds. With these new instructions, that day the bank bought debt worth €150 million, and a total of €400 million by the end of 2009, according to the consultants.

There is, the report says, "no evidence" the public comment about "minimal exposure" to Greece was ever "retracted or subsequently corrected by any of the bank's executives".

Kypri told Reuters he could say little while an official inquiry continues, but he was quoted by the investigators saying he had been unaware of the plan to return to buying Greek bonds.

Andreas Eliades, who was chief executive until July 2012, told Reuters Kypri's statement to Stockwatch referred only to a temporary sell-off in response to short-term market fluctuation.

Another member of senior management at the time, Nicolas Karydas, gave investigators and Reuters the same explanation.

On December 11, the day after the bank resumed purchases of Greek bonds, Karydas told the bank's board that most of its Greek bonds had been sold. But, the Alvarez and Marsal investigators, add: "The board was not informed that the repurchase of Greek government bonds had commenced the prior day, after the divesture."

Karydas, group general manager of risk management and markets, who left the bank at the end of August last year, rejected any suggestion the board was unaware of the investment strategy or that he misled the board. He said in an email response to Reuters "all the executives" agreed to a policy that included possible Greek bond purchases at a meeting in November 2009.

"The ... suggestions ... were also approved by the board of directors in their December 11 meeting," Karydas said. "It seemed to be a consensus view that Greece would overcome the crisis."

By April 2010, the bank had expanded its holding of Greek government bonds to €2.4 billion, a third more than the amount Kypri had told Stockwatch had been sold four months before. The investigators said this went beyond the bank's own approved 2-billion-euro limit but was approved retrospectively in May 2010.

Eliades, the former group CEO, said that Greek bonds were still well rated at the time and in demand internationally: "We cannot judge, with today's circumstances, actions which took place at a different time when Greek bonds had very high demand," he said. "Everyone was buying into Greek bonds."

By comparison, however, data from "stress tests" carried out by EU authorities concerned about the health of their banks, showed that at the end of 2010, most of the 10 biggest banks on the continent, many times larger than the Cypriot lenders, held nothing like as much Greek debt as did BoC and Laiki.

They had €2.2 billion and €3.3 billion respectively, outstripped among top 10 banks only by French giants BNP Paribas and Societe Generale. The same EU data showed that Britain's Barclays had only €192 million and Lloyds none at all.

As investors' fears over the solvency of Greece grew, the value of the Greek bonds fell.  BoC made changes to the way it accounted for the bond holdings, according to the Alvarez and Marsal report, with the result that the growing potential losses were not spelled out to investors.

In April 2010, it moved about €1.6 billion of Greek bonds from its trading account to its "held to maturity" book. This meant the bank did not have to mark down the value of the bonds.

The accounting move was made on the grounds that Greece would redeem the bonds. The report authors said: "The justification provided does not appear to be strong."

Eliades told Reuters: "Nobody could possibly expect that a European country, in the euro, could possibly default."

Last year, however, the EU and IMF bailout terms relieved Greece of the need to repay up to 80 percent on its bonds, leaving the BoC with losses of €1.8 billion.

The bank declined to respond to an allegation made in the report that data that could have been relevant to understanding why it bought so much Greek debt may have been deleted.

That data, the authors say, was wiped from the computer of Christakis Patsalides, an executive involved in buying bonds, using special software on Oct. 18 last year. When investigators examined it, there was a 15-month gap in emails in 2009-2010.

There is no suggestion Patsalides himself deleted them. He told investigators that he was unaware of any missing data, according to the report. Patsalides declined comment to Reuters but told investigators for the report that had thought the bank's ceiling for its Greek bond holdings had been set at "too high a limit". (R)

BoC execs: it seemed like a good idea at the time

CURRENT discussions on whether Cyprus should exit the eurozone are misplaced, and one proposal in particular is ‘dangerous’ in that it confuses the arguments and uses suspect data,  economists said yesterday.

The proposal  is based on a shaky methodology or plain wrong facts, said the group of 23 economists who felt they needed to set the record straight.

The anonymous proposal entitled: ‘Estimating the impact of the troika’s solution on Cyprus: assessments and a superior alternative scenario’ had been given to the President and legislators through a think tank. It urged MPs to vote down the bailout deal yesterday, claiming that negotiating a eurozone exit was a better alternative.

But economists say the proposal would jeopardise the economic and political stability of the island, and its data was plain wrong,  said one, Marios Zachariades. 

In addition to other dubious methodology, major claims were not substantiated, Zachariades said. The document claims without explanation for example, “the troika plan will cause a cumulative economic contraction of almost 50 per cent in three years, along with unemployment rates close to 40 per cent.” 

And it claims that Cyprus can get external funding by issuing bonds backed by natural gas and real estate. But Cyprus tried to get Russian aid in March and was told by finance minister Anton Siluanov that Russian investors were not interested in Cypriot gas. In fact Cyprus does not yet have confirmation that natural gas reserves are commercially viable. 

There are however examples of respected thinkers arguing in favour of a Cypexit. One mentioned yesterday at the economists’ news conference was that of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who believes Cyprus should leave the euro and let its own currency fall so that the economy’s rebuilding could be accelerated. Krugman told the Cyprus Mail previously that Cyprus needed a tourist boom and a rapid growth of other exports. 

But the Cyprus-based economists said yesterday that the island couldn’t benefit from a devalued currency because it was not an export economy so would  not have the competitive advantage of selling relatively cheaper goods abroad. 

Wages would have to fall by a disproportionate amount to cover for the increase price in imports, they said. Additionally, imports of basic goods such as fuel, medicines and first materials would have to be reduced. And depositors would be effectively given a haircut because the value of their money would suddenly drop. Limiting inflation would require austerity measures that may be harsher than the ones agreed in the memorandum, the economists warned adding that defaulting on debt owed to EU and other partners (such as Russia) would politically isolate tiny Cyprus and may have implications over natural gas exploitation prospects.  “Our options are limited,” said economist Yiannis Tirkides. 

For Alex Apostolides, Cyprus committed to the euro when it accepted emergency liquidity assistance via the European Central Bank to support Laiki (Popular) Bank. Instead of being forced to discuss Cypexit, economists should focus on the real issues at hand such as unemployment and actions moving Cyprus onwards and forwards, he said. 

“Alternative proposals are nebulous. The memorandum gives us a roadmap, but the alternative is shrouded in uncertainty. We needed to do the painful restructuring anyway,” said Sofronis Clerides. “But at some point we need to commit that we will be staying in the euro,” he added, warning that the uncertainty would further harm confidence in the banks.

TWO MONTHS after leaving office, former President Demetris Christofias is holding on to one of the presidential limos, the government has confirmed.

The story was brought to light by right-leaning daily Alithia. According to the paper, when Christofias stepped down in February he kept the beefed-up Mercedes, which happened to be presidential car number one.

The Mercedes had been purchased by the state ahead of Pope Benedict’s visit to the island in June 2010.

In the meantime, President Anastasiades had to make do with presidential car number two. Alithia reported that until recently the Presidential Palace had let the matter slide and had not made any noises for the limo’s return.

But it became an issue when Anastasiades’ limo broke down and needed servicing – forcing the President to make use of the second back-up car, a limo purchased by the presidency during the term of the late Tassos Papadopoulos. Apparently this car, too, has mechanical problems.

The paper claimed also that Christofias was sounded out but had refused to return the Mercedes.

On Monday, the Presidential Palace released a statement denying that Christofias was refusing to hand back the limo. Instead, it explained, Christofias was hanging on to the limo until such time as his own car – which he has ordered – is delivered to him.

Although the Palace handled the matter with tact, at the same time it’s entirely plausible that Alithia, which is pro-DISY, may have been tasked with stirring the waters.

According to local media, on leaving office Christofias had kept the Mercedes apparently for security reasons. The ex-President had voiced fears over his own safety and that of his family. In addition to the presidential limo, a total of 15 guards – paid for by the state - have been assigned to the former head of state.

CYPRUS has been given a clean bill of health in terms of its compliance with international anti-money-laundering rules, officials have said.

Two separate audits into the island’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework have been completed and their key preliminary findings forwarded to international creditors, finance minister Harris Georgiades said.

The findings will not be published. But Georgiades said the results were positive:

“The situation for Cyprus is far better than what perhaps many abroad wished to portray,” the minister said.

“The investigations that have taken place do not corroborate what various quarters were accusing us of,” he added.

He did not elaborate. But Georgiades said that any remaining shortcomings, any ‘loopholes’ in the local AML system would be closed shut so that the subject of compliance is settled once and for all.

It has now been shown that allegations of money laundering against Cyprus were “a “staged affair, achieved through hyperbole,” he said.

Two parallel audits were conducted, one by Deloitte Financial Advisory, the other by Moneyval of the Council of Europe.

Under the agreed procedure, their findings will be communicated to the troika of international lenders – European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The troika then reports to the Eurogroup on the level of implementation of preventive measures by financial institutions.

An independent audit of Cyprus’ implementation of AML measures was set as a precondition for any international bailout. Cyprus initially resisted the idea, arguing it had already been cleared in a prior assessment by Moneyval. The government later backed down and agreed to a fresh review, one by Moneyval and a parallel one by a private auditor.

Any recommendations for improvements in the two audits must be acted upon by Cypriot authorities before the first tranche of aid is disbursed.

Deloitte’s audit focused on the effective implementation of Customer Due Diligence measures by a sample of major Cypriot banks with regards to deposits and loans.  All credit institutions in Cyprus with a threshold of over €2 billion in total deposits by the end of 2012 were included in the exercise.

Allegations of Russian money laundering were doing the rounds in the foreign- mostly German- press in the run-up to the Eurogroup decision last month which agreed a €10bn bailout for Cyprus.

The EU’s AML directives are based on the 40+9 recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to set standards and promote effective implementation of AML and counter-terrorism financing measures.

The previous Moneyval review of Cyprus in September 2011 found the island to be compliant to some degree with all 40+9 recommendations.

And the Basel AML Index has assigned Cyprus a lower money laundering risk than the eurozone average and lower than EU countries like Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and the Netherlands. 

Now, the latest findings will no doubt validate the suspicions of many here who maintain the money-laundering accusations were but a pretext to turn the screws on the debt-ridden country.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades

AS PARLIAMENT met to ratify the terms of Cyprus’ bailout a crowd of people protested, saying it was the harbinger of unfair austerity. 

“We know where this policy will take us. It will damage labour relations and will annihilate the meaning of democracy,” said 43-year-old Nicos Trimikliniotis, who is part of an anti-austerity and anti-privatisations platform. 

Just behind him, a man with a megaphone chanted slogans against the troika of lenders, just as others did representing diverse groups – from members of former ruling party AKEL, fringe groups further to the left, Giorgos Lillikas’ Citizen’s Alliance and protesters belonging to far-right groups. People held Greek and Cypriot flags chanting “troika out of Cyprus,” “Cyprus will not become a protectorate,” or “People, wake up, stand up they are drinking your blood”.

“If people do not show their resistance there will more memorandums,” Trimikliniotis said. 

He said that no bailout has been sanctioned by the people and Cypriots were being forced into a corner, said Trimikliniotis. 

“Just because (Cyprus) has been the victim of blackmail does not mean that they will in their turn blackmail society. They cannot pass the responsibility over to the people of Cyprus,” he said. 

“We believe the MoU simply entails another kind of colonialism,” said Angelica, a 23-year lawyer. “The MoU will create unemployment, wretchedness, and literally wreck homes.” For Angelica, Cyprus’ problems are shared across all the small countries – including Greece, Spain and Portugal – who are being held captive by EU policy. “The problem is capitalism. They are sucking us dry”. 

In a different corner of a protest, people waving Greek flags also protested. 

“As the youth, we want a future in Cyprus and not to be forced emigrate,” said Antonis Kazamias, a 26-year-old student. “We disagree with the MoU and its policy.” 

Beyond the police barricade separating protesters from Parliament, lawmakers gave lengthy speeches on the MoU. 

DIKO chief and coalition partner Marios Garoyian urged lawmakers to ratify the measures. 

“If there were any other realistic option, then surely we would take it. Unfortunately, we have no other option,” he said. 

EDEK chief and House President Yiannakis Omirou said they could not in good conscience sanction the measures and called for negotiating for a better MoU.

The Greens’ Giorgos Perdikis said Parliament’s ‘yes’ would be the people’s greatest defeat in thousands of years of history. The democratically elected representatives will accept – gun to head – an agreement of enslavement, leading to financial, social and moral wretchedness,” Perdikis said.

Independent MP Zacharias Koulias told his colleagues they were wrong to vote through the bailout, because they would be surrendering the country’s sovereignty. 

Demonstrations outside the House as vote goes on (Christos Theodorides)

IF PRESIDENT Anastasiades’ government manages to implement 20 per cent of the measures aimed at drastically improving and modernising the state sector’s services, eliminating corruption and making all state and elected officials accountable, then he should consider it a major success. 

In effect, Anastasiades wants to re-build the Cyprus state sector almost from scratch, clean up public life and impose controls on politicians and state officials who for decades were able to get away with almost anything. It is a very ambitious plan that, we fear, has a very small chance of being implemented because it would meet with opposition from all quarters.

For instance would deputies pass a bill that would prevent them serving more than three consecutive terms? Would they vote for a bill that lifts their immunity, which they have been happily abusing in order to get out of paying traffic fines and God know what else? It is difficult to see how the president would persuade self-serving deputies to abolish the privileges they have been enjoying.

Even more difficult would be eradicating the corrupt practices in the state sector, which have been cultivated for 60 years and have become a way of life, actively supported by the political parties who have built their support base on clientelism. Once the political parties lose the power to get supporters promoted or appointed in the state sector and cannot help their people secure state contracts, how would they attract voters? 

The entire political system is built on nepotism and favours and we find it hard to believe the political parties would stand by while the government demolishes it. But who will sit on the committees, the president proposed, that will decide appointments and promotions in the state and semi-governmental sectors, if not the people from the political parties. 

More than 10 years ago, the Clerides government prepared a law, approved by all the parties, making nepotism a criminal offence. Nobody has been prosecuted, even though, according to the politicians, nepotism is rampant in the public sector. Having laws safeguarding transparency and meritocracy is well and good, but what is the likelihood of these being implemented, in a system in which most things are covered up or end up as a never-ending legal dispute?

Drafting laws against corrupt and irregular practices will change very little. The mentality of people in positions of authority also needs to change as they would be expected to enforce the laws and that is the real challenge facing the government. If it does not have the people committed to enforcing the new laws and reporting violations the measures announced on Monday will be nothing more than a meaningless theoretical exercise.  

PARLIAMENT last night ratified the island’s EU bailout amid warnings that tougher times lie ahead for Cypriots, already suffering from the effects of a deep recession.

With a thin majority of just two votes, lawmakers approved terms accompanying €10 billion in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a show of hands, 29 MPs – DISY, DIKO, and EVROKO -- the three parties in the government approved the motion, with 27 – AKEL, EDEK, Greens and two others -- voting against.

Government officials had warned the island would fall into chaotic default, unable to pay salaries or pensions, as early as next month without emergency funding.

"Unfortunately the (bailout) is a one-way street for us. It will avert disorderly default and gives, albeit with many hurdles, some prospect of getting us out of the storm," said DISY chief Averof Neophytou.

The bailout debate took place as a few hundred people demonstrated outside parliament against the memorandum, under the watchful eye of a strong police force in riot gear.

One group brought along a fake gallows, which they said was for lawmakers.

They were mostly supporters of AKEL – who had applied for a bailout in the first place – and members of former foreign minister Giorgos Lillikas’ citizens’ alliance.

Initially the protesters were in one group but it did not take long for disagreements arise, prompting the Lillikas crowd to move to the other end of the street that passes outside parliament.

The government welcomed the ratification of the bailout – already approved by other EU parliaments – as it called for unity.

“It would have been an oxymoron for European parliaments to approve a €10 billion loan to Cyprus only for it to be rejected by the parliament of a country with empty coffers without having a realistic alternative plan” government spokesman Christos Stylianides said in a statement.

The administration, Stylianides said, will now focus on implementing the bailout programme and “we want to have the entire political leadership – those who approved the deal and those who rejected it -- on our side, because Cyprus salvation is above everything else.”

AKEL reiterated its proposal for a coordinated exit from the eurozone and a referendum.

“We think that it destroys the banking sector, to a large extent it destroys the Cypriot economy, and it leads to a vicious circle that will continuously breed new needs and demands for fresh harsh measures,” AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said.

He said the bailout deal had not been signed earlier – by former president Demetris Christofias – because people outside Cyprus did not want that to happen.

Kyprianou said the German finance ministry, in response to a question from the country’s MPs regarding the delay, had said that it had not been signed because Germany did not adopt the preliminary agreement between Cyprus and international lenders.

"We know leaving the euro is an equally painful option, but reinstating a national currency could offer prospects for growth in the future," Kyprianou said.

Cyprus is bracing for at least two more years of economic misery and record unemployment as terms on the bailout start to bite.

Attempts to agree a deal triggered financial chaos last month when parliament rejected a plan to make both insured and uninsured depositors pay a levy to fund the recapitalisation of banks heavily exposed to debt-crippled Greece.

It was followed by a two-week bank closure. The fallback option was to wind down one of the banks, Laiki, and impose losses that could reach 60 per cent on uninsured deposits - over €100,000 – in the Bank of Cyprus.

The leader of government partners DIKO said his party’s vote was for the salvation of the country and its people.

“It is not a vote of submission to unacceptable conditions and extortionate demands,” Marios Garoyian said. “It is primarily a vote of confidence in the ability of this people, its strength and resistance, its adaptability and endless resourcefulness.”The Green party considered the ratification of the deal “by far the biggest defeat in our 8,000-year history. Its democratically elected representatives have a gun to their head to agree to a deal of enslavement," MP Giorgos Perdikis said. 

House also approves ‘interim’ IPT law 

PARLIAMENT yesterday approved a controversial immovable property tax (IPT) seen as necessary for the country to receive the first tranche of a much-needed bailout.

The government had submitted the bill as a stopgap measure to satisfy bailout conditions.

It had acknowledged that the IPT was not perfect, pledging to amend it by the end of June to make it fairer.

This did not stop main opposition AKEL from criticising the administration, focusing mainly on the fact that it made no provisions for a tax-free ceiling.

“It is a provocation and we reject it,” AKEL MP Stavros Evagorou said, adding that the government was even taxing people living in hovels.

Government coalition DIKO MP Angelos Votsis stressed that ways must be found to exempt people’s first residence.

DISY’s Prodromos Prodromou struck a note of caution however, saying that a lot of first residences were actually worth a lot of money.

Deputies vote (Christos Theodorides)

AT AROUND 1.30am yesterday in Nicosia 25-year-old Panicos Georgiou died in a motorbike accident.
Georgiou was driving on Griva Dighenis Avenue towards Engomi when he lost control of his motorbike. The motorbike overturned and slammed into two cars at a set of traffic lights.
Georgiou, who was wearing a helmet, was critically injured. He was taken to the emergency room of Nicosia General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A FILM by Cypriot director Minos Papas looking at the impact of the unregulated arms’ trade won the top prize in the prestigious New York Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) online film competition.
“A short film about GUNS” premiered in the history lessons’ shorts programme of the festival, wining $5,000 (about €3,800) and earning the TFF’s best short film competition, making it eligible for an academy award nomination.
The film looks at the unregulated arms trade and how a recent diplomatic treaty could help tackle this global crisis, featuring four arms trafficking experts who recount first-hand experiences with the arms trade.
The film, shot in London, New York City and Seattle, was produced to shed light to an industry that generates over about €45.8bln a year.
The screenings at the Tribeca film festival followed the culmination of diplomatic talks with the United Nations resulting last month in an agreement by governments on the first-ever arms trade treaty. The film argued there was an urgent need for the treaty and that the absence of one has caused much devastation.
“I hope that our world leaders will rush to sign and ratify the arms’ trade treaty. Unlike other UN resolutions that remain unenforced, this treaty has the potential to save lives and contain the rampant devastation occurring in war-torn areas,” said Papas.
The screenings drew huge crowds that included members of the Cyprus Mission to the UN, Cypriot consul Koula Sophianou, representatives of the Control Arms coalition, and high profile guests in the film industry, a news release said.
“The film has already received press and international attention; Minos Papas was interviewed for both the New York Times, and the New York 1 channel, and invited to participate in festivals around the world.”
The film’s producer, Louis Belanger, hailed the film as a victory for a worthy cause.  “A Short Film about GUNS will be a mouthpiece to spread awareness and convince governments to pass the Arms Trade Treaty into national laws and truly start making an impact," said the film’s producer, Louis Belanger.
“The fact that so many viewers voted for our film shows that people deeply care about this crucial issue. The award will serve to bring the message to even bigger audience,” Belanger said.
“We will be building on this support (demonstrated by the film’s victory) to ensure that states sign the Treaty, which will open for signature on June 3,” said Allison Pytlak of Control Arms.
Papas also enjoyed a lengthy conversation with Robert De Niro at the TFF directors’ brunch. Their conversation covered important issues ranging from Cyprus to the festival to the international arms trade.
For more information visit:
http://new.livestream.com/TribecaFilm/events/2049026/videos/17360542http://controlarmsblog.posterous.com/tribeca-the-arms-trade-treaty-and-h...
http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/festival/features/tff-2013-award-winners

Director Minos Papas (left) chatting with actor Robert De Niro

A NEW health service bill was passed on Tuesday at the House, which will see an increase in fees at public hospitals.
The bill will also require those wanting free healthcare to provide a tax form which proves they have made three years worth of social insurance contributions. Passing the bill was a condition set by the troika to release the first instalment of the loan.
The 18 MPs of opposition AKEL voted against the bill which will see the introduction of a 1.5 per cent charge for civil servants and fees for first aid, medicine and medical examinations which will come into effect in three months.
After the vote, House President, Yiannakis Omirou stressed that providing health care to everyone was the state’s obligation and every person’s right. He added the modernisation of the healthcare system had been pending since 1960 when the Republic of Cyprus was founded, and that a National Health System (NHS) needs to be adopted as soon as possible.
MPs rejected an amendment from AKEL’s MP Stella Misiaouli-Demetriou which would have seen exemptions for Cypriot repatriates who had lived in foreign countries who had not contributed to the social insurance fund for three years.
DISY MP, Zacharias Zachariou told the house assembly there would be a three month period before the bill came into effect, to give time for any problems to be ironed out. AKEL MP, Adamos Adamou said that the requirement for a universal health insurance system for all was non-negotiable. “It is our fault that we don’t have a NHS,” he said, adding: “Health cannot be and should not be a political game”.
Panicos Stavrianos, also an AKEL MP explained that medical costs must decrease as under current circumstances any person needing care could spend a year’s salary to pay for healthcare.

THE COUNTRY’S deep economic difficulties give people the opportunity to engage in charitable activity, Archbishop Chrysostomos II said in his Easter message reiterating the Church’s willingness to donate its assets to help exit the crisis.
“The Church… is making available to the people all of its fortune so that they do not suffer and so that the country’s economy may be salvaged,” the Primate said ahead of the biggest Greek Orthodox holiday.
“(The Church) is willing, just as it has done many times before during our existence as a nation, to donate even the Churches’ valuables – those very sacred vessels – for the salvation of the country.”
The Archbishop said in March – before a Cyprus bailout was finalised with the country’s EU lenders – that the Church could mortgage its property to invest in bonds to support the economy without specifying how. When he was Bishop of Paphos, he encouraged displaced Greek Cypriots to vote against the Annan Plan in 2004 – a proposed solution to the Cyprus problem that was to be rejected by Greek Cypriots – promising to compensate those who were to lose land in the north. He later denied making such comments.
In his Easter message, the Archbishop said that the economic hardship would pass but nonetheless made timely the Church’s charitable foundations. “(The financial hardships) give the opportunity to those who can to demonstrate their charitable feelings to those in need,” he said.
But the Archbishop also said that the joy from the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the cornerstone of the Christian faith – could not be overshadowed by any financial troubles. The joy of Easter is an internal happiness manifesting as inner calm and courage from the certainty that it is God’s will and not human contrivances that finally decide the outcome of all things, the Archbishop said.
The Archbishop urged people not to lose sight of the country’s bigger problem – that of the Cyprus problem and the risk of consenting a damaging solution to the situation that has resulted in the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern part of the island. “Our first concern and priority must always be a fair resolution of our national problem,” the Primate said.
“National survival can in no way be compared with the economic crisis or even physical survival… We must not be led to unacceptable compromises under conditions of panic and under pressure from our economic problems,” he said.

THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has effectively ruled out the right of displaced Cypriots to return to their homes, said the lawyer who was recently told by the ECHR that Turkey was not obliged to return her home and properties lost when Turkey invaded in 1974.
The ECHR has recently refused to look at a request by lawyer Eleni Meleagrou and her family to review the correctness or not of the decision by the ‘TRNC’ not to grant restitution for the family home or property. The ECHR’s decision is final and not subject to appeal.
“There is no right of return any more. That has been actually abolished,” Meleagrou said.
Meleagrou and her family wanted to have their home and 17 plots of land in occupied Kyrenia and Zodhia returned to them. The term used by courts is “restitution,” one of the remedies offered by the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) set up by Turkey in 2006 to address property claims by displaced Greek Cypriots. The IPC offers two other remedies: expropriation with compensation, and property exchange.
The ECHR said in the landmark 2010 Demopoulos case that the IPC had to be the first port of call for displaced Greek Cypriots, as it was  deemed an effective domestic remedy, meaning that the IPC was considered legally and practically capable of addressing Greek Cypriot claims. Following the Demopoulos case, Greek Cypriots needed to first lodge claims with the IPC, with the option of an appeal to the high administrative court in the north in order to exhaust the domestic remedies.
The understanding was that this process would enable Greek Cypriots who were still left unsatisfied with the domestic procedure, to ask the ECHR to review the decision – in essence asking the ECHR to review the laws and practice of the domestic remedy. It has been a powerful argument used by lawyers arguing in favour of going to the IPC as a way to take Turkey back to the ECHR to expose as a bluff the claim that the IPC was an effective remedy. The first real test came with the Meleagrou case, the first application seen by the ECHR asking for a review of the IPC’s decisions. But the ECHR did not review the case’s merits – rejecting the Meleagrou application last month on technicalities.
The Meleagrou family asked the IPC for restitution – and not compensation or property exchange – but were told by the ECHR they could, if they wanted, ask for either of the other two remedies.
“The fact that the applicants did not want to claim redress which would have led to them giving up their claim of title… is not relevant to this assessment. It was their choice, but it excluded them from obtaining the other available remedies,” the ECHR said.
Seeking compensation or land exchange “would also have permitted the award of damages for loss of use or non-pecuniary compensation if restitution was not afforded,” the Strasbourg court said adding “the range of remedies available before the IPC … was found (in the Demopoulos case) to be effective.”
“It’s shocking actually. If the IPC does not give me what I ask, I am not allowed to have that decision reviewed by the ECHR. I have to accept anything they give me. I have to accept something. In other words, I don’t really have a choice.”
For Meleagrou, the ECHR’s refusal to review the IPC and high administrative court’s decisions demonstrates the real import of the Demopoulos case.
“We have to make a distinction – there are properties and there are homes and the right of restitution to homes has always been considered a much stronger case,” Meleagrou said.
In the 2008 Demades case, the ECHR spoke of “displaced Greek Cypriots” when ordering Turkey to compensate the family of late Ioannis Demades for loss of use of his Kyrenia property.
But after the Demopoulos case, the distinction between right to property and right to home was abolished because only property owners were allowed to lodge claims, Meleagrou said.
But although the IPC remedy was set up to deal with violations of rights to property and homes, “in the process it has just become the right to property,” Meleagrou said.
“We asked for restitution (of our Kyrenia home) (but) there was no discussion of it as a home. They didn’t give it back to us (so the ECHR said), get compensation. They would not review the decision under either the articles of the right to property or right to home.”
For Meleagrou, another consequence of the ECHR decision was the tacit recognition of the supremacy of Turkish law over Cypriot law when it comes to property claims in the north. She said this was demonstrated by the way the ECHR chose to treat the 14 properties owned by the Meleagrou family company in 1974 and later transferred to Eleni Meleagrou’s mother, Evie, after 1974.
Although the Cyprus’ land registry carried out the property transfer registering Evie Meleagrou as the property owner, the IPC would not accept her ownership claims. The IPC argued that the applicant could not claim rights in the land because under the Turkish law, only those who owned property in1974 or their heirs can apply, and as no one can be an heir to a company, Evie Meleagrou was not the rightful owner and could not apply. The ECHR accepted this without reviewing any documents pertaining to the properties. “So the ECHR ignored the valid, legitimate actions of the land registry post-1974, the transfer of the land from the company to my mother” Meleagrou said. This means in effect, “when titles of ownership about property in the occupied north are in conflict with Turkish law regarding ownership, Turkish law is the one that prevails,” she said.
As of May 2, 2013, 4,864 applications have been lodged with the IPC, with just 367 concluded. Most cases have been settled with compensation. Compensation decisions will not be reviewed by the ECHR unless they are blatant lowball offers, Meleagrou said.
Just a handful of cases have been settled with restitution at the IPC, including partial restitution and one case of restitution after the Cyprus problem is solved. Fewer cases still have been settled with land exchange.
“What I had asked the (ECHR) to do was to review the law and the workings of the IPC.” But the ECHR’s rejection of the application as inadmissible means there “is no longer a court of last resort,” Meleagrou said.

ECHR 'rules out right to return'

THE JUSTICE minister said yesterday he would appoint an independent criminal investigator to examine claims by daily Politis, which claims one of their reporters was wrongfully embroiled in a police investigation in relation to a death threat issued against President Nicos Anastasiades.
Ionas Nicolaou said that the Politis claims needed to be examined thoroughly.
“Our effort is to investigate the report’s claims swiftly, with full independence and in depth so that there are no (wrong) impressions in relation to police’s intentions.” Although Nicolaou said he fully trusted the police chief, he added an investigation would include the police’s handling of the case.
Politis crime reporter, Manolis Kalantzis, informed the force in early April that he had received a threatening letter for Anastasiades and Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades and their families. The newspaper said yesterday that police informed Kalantzis this week that he was a suspect in the case they said they discovered his DNA in one of the stamps.
Politis said that police took DNA and fingertips’ samples from everyone at the newspaper who had contact with the letter, but were shocked to find out their own reporter was considered a suspect in the case.
According to Politis, police conceded that in addition to discovering Kalantzis’ DNA, they had also found genetic material belonging to others. The police investigator thought that Kalantzis had a motive to send the letter himself in order to publish a story in the newspaper, Politis said. The newspaper further claims that contrary to police allegations that the DNA was found behind a “well-stuck stamp,” it was clear from the photographs they had taken of the letter that the stamp’s edges were already sticking up when the letter was received.
Kalantzis also told Politis that he received word from a source within the police that a court rejected last week the force’s request to get a warrant issued to confiscate his computers and hard drives. Nevertheless, the reporter handed over his computers on certain conditions geared at protecting his sources.
The newspaper raised questions over the way the police handed the investigations, alleging ulterior motives.
Minister Nicolaou yesterday said that the all government authorities were obliged to respect journalists’ sources. He did not give a timeframe for the investigations, pending a discussion with the attorney-general.
The government “completely respects media officials and calls on them to continue their work with no hindrance and with full freedom in how they express their opinions or put across their views,” Nicolaou said.
The typewritten letter was sent by post to local daily Politis in Nicosia and signed by the ‘Deposit Rescue Group: To the Death’.  
The letter itself was dated March 20, 2013, five days after a plan was announced to force a levy on insured and insured deposits in all local banks. The plan was later rejected by parliament.
The letter said, “You have destroyed us following a very well prepared plan and you continue to destroy us showing indifference to what will become of us and our children and grandchildren.”
“With us we have professionals who are paid handsomely, understand nothing and have no god other than money,”
The letter also said, “We warn you and we’re not bluffing. We will start with your grandchildren, then go to your children and leave you last so you can hurt as much as we are.”
The letter ended with: “We belong to no party or organisation. You are fated to die.”