Anastasiades: If electoral expediencies put aside, parties could agree on reforms

The National Council was meeting on Monday morning to discuss proposed reforms related to the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and if there were no electoral expediencies brought into play, parties could reach a consensus, President Nicos Anastasiades said ahead of the session.

He said the Cyprus issue and the consequences of the war in Ukraine would also be on the table.
In statements on Sunday, Anastasiades said he was pleased to see that the political parties were equally interested in solutions to the global economic crisis, which would make for substantial discussion at the Council meeting.

“And, of course, we will also be concerned with the broader issues of modernisation of legislation and institutions in order to proceed with the Recovery and Resilience Plan so that we are able to absorb the funding and implement programmes that have been designed, costed and approved by the political parties themselves and by European Union through the ‘Cyprus Tomorrow’ Plan,” he said.

Asked if he would try to secure the consensus of the political parties to move forward, Anastasiades said:

“There is a consensus… somewhere there are differences but I believe that in a good spirit, in a good climate, prospects can be created,” he added.

“If there is electoral expediency, there is nothing. If, on the contrary, the reform measures envisaged are universally accepted and adopted as soon as possible, the better it will be for the entire Cypriot people, left- wingers, right-wingers, centrists…”

Referring to the European Council meeting next week in Brussels and the challenges posed by Turkey, the president said the EU’s priorities at the moment were the war in Ukraine and the resulting energy and inflation crises.

However, when asked about Turkey, he said there was no doubt that through the issues to be discussed he would be given the opportunity to remind Cyprus’ European partners “once again that beyond Ukraine, which of course we care about, that a European country, Cyprus, has been under occupation for 48 years” and was again being subjected to the arbitrary and illegal actions of Ankara.