Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 11-06-29

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] GOVERNMENT - LIDINGTON - REMARKS

[02] DOMESTIC MARKET - GDRS

[03] CYPRUS - INTERDEPENDENCE

[04] EU BUDGET - CITIZENS

[01] GOVERNMENT - LIDINGTON - REMARKS

Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou made statements to this effect when invited to comment on David Lidingtons remarks at a press conference on Tuesday, who indicated that property related problems faced by British nationals in Turkish occupied Cyprus are on an equal par with those that arise in the southern government controlled part of the country.

The Spokesman referred journalists to a Foreign Ministry statement, issued Tuesday, that the Ministry described Lidingtons statement on the usurpation of properties in the occupied areas as at least unfortunate.

In its written statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it considers at the very least unfortunate, the comparison and parallelism of the usurpation of stolen Greek Cypriot properties in the occupied areas - the owners of which were expelled by force of arms and as a result of the Turkish invasion and continuing occupation - with any legal or other problems which may arise from the purchase of immovable property in the government controlled areas (of the Republic) by British citizens.

Although these issues were not raised during Mr. Lidingtons meetings, the Government of the Republic of Cyprus is making every possible effort to resolve them, the statement added.

The Government Spokesman was also invited to comment on a case of a British national, who is serving a prison sentence and will be released in July, and is faced with a European arrest warrant for usurpation of properties in the occupied areas of Cyprus. Stephanou noted that the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus handles the case.

Lidington, who gave a press conference on Tuesday in Nicosia, was asked to comment on the fact that many British citizens buy illegally Greek Cypriot property in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus and are issued with illegal title deeds. The British Minister said that the problem about title deeds to a property is by no means one confined to the north of the island.``

``This is not something that is a problem for the north of the island only. I have letters from MPs (British) about the property issue in the southern part of Cyprus also,`` he added.

In the aftermath of the Turkish invasion against Cyprus in 1974 and the deliberate ethnic cleansing of the occupied areas, the Turkish authorities and their subordinate local administration proceeded with the expropriation and usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties as part of the policy of eradicating the Greek Cypriot heritage in occupied Cyprus. Since 1974, Greek Cypriot displaced and refugee property owners have been denied access to and enjoyment of their property. Moreover, relatives of the displaced and refugees have also been denied inheritance rights to these properties.

The government of Cyprus has taken a number of measures to address the problem of Greek Cypriot property usurpation and exploitation in occupied Cyprus. These measures include inter alia the criminalization of the promotion and sale of stolen properties, diplomatic actions informing foreign governments of legal risks to their citizens dealing with usurped properties and actions in Cypriot and European courts and the enforcement of Cypriot court judgments in EU countries under EU regulation.

[02] DOMESTIC MARKET - GDRS

The auction was organised by the Finance Ministry`s Public Debt Management Office for the sale of 2-year GRDs worth of 700 million euro offering a coupon of 4.5%.

The Ministry accepted all bids submitted for the amount of 714.568.000 euro. The competitive bids reached 667.588.000 euro, whereas the non-competitive reached 47.010.000 euro.

The average yield reached 5.00%.

[03] CYPRUS - INTERDEPENDENCE

The report, entitled Economic Interdependence in Cyprus, was presented in Nicosia and was funded from the UN Development Programme Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP - ACT), which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the report, the revenues flowing to the Turkish Cypriot Community (TCC) are estimated at 192 ml euro and the outflows at 109 ml, giving a net gain for the TCC of around 83 ml euro.

These are considered to be significantly greater than TCC inflows through international trade (56 ml in 2008). These net benefits of the TCC are derived from expenditure by visitors across the Green Line, Green Line trade, employment in the Greek Cypriot Community (GCC) and pension payments to TCs.

[04] EU BUDGET - CITIZENS

The EU budget for 2011 reaches 140 billion euros, which is considered very small, compared to the national budgets of the 27 member states, which exceed 6,300 billion euros.

In other works, according to the document, the total of state expenditure of the 27 member states is 50 times larger than the EU budget, For example, Cyprus` state expenditure for 2011 reaches 8,02 billion euros, up by 1.1%.

Furthermore, the EU budget is smaller than that of an average-sized member state, such as Austria and Belgium. ``The average EU citizen paid only 67 cents on average per day to finance the annual budget in 2010. This is less than half the price for a cup of coffee, hardly a large expense given the huge benefits that the EU brings citizens,`` the document says.

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