EC concern over how justice served in Cyprus

The European Commission is set to raise concerns over Cyprus’ justice system in its Rule of Law report set to be published later this month.

In a teaser article on Monday ahead of an exclusive interview with state broadcaster CyBC, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders was quoted as saying Cyprus ranks last in a number of areas dealing with how justice is served.

The commissioner stressed the need for proper reforms across the sector, and the need to digitise the justice system.

According to Reynders, Cyprus fails to submit annual data used to evaluate the justice system in EU countries, largely because this data has yet to be digitised.

It’s not enough to have qualified and independent judges when the way justice is served fails to be effective, he added.

Reynders said the EU Commission was evaluating a new tranche of data sent from Cyprus over the amount of Russian property on the island that has been frozen.

He said the initial information sent from Cyprus revealed some €1 million of assets were frozen. Nonetheless, there is currently a procedure in check to explore whether the real figure is €1.2 billion, on the basis of new data sent to Brussels.

Though the interview was slated to be broadcasted on Monday, it was later moved to Tuesday.