EDEK President Marinos Sizopoulos argued that suspension in itself is a half measure
EDEK calls for a comprehensive package of measures to deal with the problem of foreclosures, as stated today by the President of the party, Marinos Sizopoulos, underlining the need for a special court to be used by borrowers to resolve disputes with the bank. He also noted that this is the reason that EDEK decided not to support the extension of the moratorium on sales.
“The EDEK many times up to now supported the suspension of sales, but at the same time emphasized that the suspension is not final or even the best possible”, said Mr. Sizopoulos, adding that since 2017 the EDEK had proposed the creation of a special department in the provincial courts, to which borrowers who disagree with bank overcharges, or with the procedure followed for the sale of their property, can appeal. “This is because we wanted to protect vulnerable borrowers and not strategic defaulters,” he explained.
He went on to say that this proposal reached Parliament four times, on the verge of being debated and voted on by the Plenary. Mr. Sizopoulos added that “with the initiatives of DISY, AKEL and ELAM, the debate has essentially been rejected, which is why 5-6 years later the special court has not yet been established, despite the commitments of both the previous government and the previous President of the Republic, which in contact with the Supreme Court had agreed on the procedures and even the recruitment of judges to be able to staff these departments”.
He then emphasized that the measure of suspension does not solve the problem and will not prove to be effective and stated that “from the side of the EDEK we asked for a package of measures that includes suspension and the special court and possibly some additional ones measures, which are currently before the Parliament's Finance Committee, which has undertaken to discuss and formulate them, so that we can contribute to an effective solution”.
The President of EDEK raised the question whether, after three years of postponements, the sale problem was solved and he noted that “the parties that today are protesting because we did not support the suspension, should say why they do not support simultaneously with the suspension of the sales that there should also be a discussion on the vote of the expert court”.
“So what is needed is a package of measures which will strengthen and to a much greater extent protect the vulnerable borrower and at the same time limit the abuses made by the institutions managing the citizens' loans”, he concluded.
