House rubberstamps committee chairmanships

The House plenary on Thursday rubberstamped the chairs and members of the 16 regular parliamentary committees, plus of the ad hoc committee on demographics and a newly created ethics committee for MPs.

The divvying up of the committees held no surprises, confirming the agreement reached between the parties during the week.

Nationalists Elam got the chair of the ad hoc committee on demographics. Main opposition Akel made good on its promise to abstain from any committee chaired by Elam.

The new ethics committee for MPs will be chaired ex officio by House president Annita Demetriou, of the ruling Disy party.

The chairs of the 16 regular committees went to the following: defence to Marinos Sizopoulos (Edek); foreign affairs to Harris Georgiades (Disy); finance committee to Christiana Erotokritou (Diko); interior to Aristos Damianou (Akel); education to Pavlos Mylonas (Diko); transport to Marinos Mousiouttas (Dipa); energy and commerce to Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis (Disy); agriculture to Yiannakis Gavriel (Akel); labour to Andros Kafkalias (Akel); legal affairs to Nicos Tornaritis (Disy); health to Eftymios Diplaros (Disy); watchdog to Zacharias Koulias (Diko); refugees to Nikos Kettiros (Akel); the environment to Charalambos Theopemptou (Greens); human rights to Irini Charalambidou (Akel); ethics to Demetris Demetriou (Disy).

With their composition locked in, the House committees are set to begin convening next week to schedule their legislative work.

Important issues expected to be dealt with by the House early on include coronavirus-related relief, reform of local government, justice and the civil service, asset declarations and the ‘Pay As You Throw’ programme.