The Plenary Session of the Parliament unanimously voted the second supplementary budget for 2022, in which the total amount of additional appropriations required amounts to approximately € 171.8 million. At the same time, there was tension over the issue of naming the assistants of the independent officials but also the budget for the Georgios Grivas Digenis Foundation
These additional costs relate to the extension of a series of measures against the coronavirus in the first months of 2022 and emergency costs as a result of the war in Ukraine. In addition, they cover additional needs for strengthening the defense shield, fire prevention, for social benefits, health benefits, sports and other requests. There was also a need to amend Article 16 of the Budget Law as well as to create/remove/rename posts.
The most important expenditures mentioned in the supplementary budget concern: Special Independent Services & # 8211; € 6.4 million, Defense Shield & # 8211; € 52.8 million, Water Market & # 8211; € 36 million and OEDA & # 8211; € 2 million, Retirement Allowance during the Turkish Invasion & # 8211; € 2.6 million and Social Pension approximately € 2.98 million.
The Plenary approved orally an amendment of AKEL with 29 votes in favor and 18 against the Georgios Grivas Digenis Foundation.
The Plenary rejected marginally the amendment of DIKO for deletion of the reports to the Assistant Attorney General of the Republic, Assistant Auditor General and Assistant General Accountant, given that a relevant decision of the Supreme Court is pending on the issue of renaming the above positions. 23 voted in favor, 24 against and there was an abstention. , to secure share capital. 21 deputies voted in favor and 28 against.
AKEL amendment was also approved for the commitment of the amount of € 5,800,000 regarding the granting of credits for the purpose of repaying the port workers' loan in exchange for the reduction of the charging fees in the Limassol Port. 31 deputies voted in favor and against 18.
Lack of funds and breeders and leisure centers
AKEL MP Andreas Kafkalias stated that the supplementary budget does not have the necessary funds so that the state can support the real economy and society and professional groups that have been hit hard by the crisis, such as leisure centers, professionals space of culture.
ELAM MP Sotiris Ioannou stated that the additional 3 million promised by the Government to livestock farmers are missing, while the funds for unaccompanied minors are increasing, which, as he said, are neither unaccompanied nor minors. He expressed satisfaction that the budget for the Georgios Grivas Digenis Foundation was included in the supplementary budget.
EDEK MP Elias Myrianthous said they expected an additional amount to support the primary sector for both livestock and fisheries. Regarding the 36 million euros for water purchase, he said that it is the cost that the state has to pay to desalination companies due to the increase of the energy price and he wondered why the Water Department did not arrange for these companies to buy energy from RES and not from EAC.
DIPA-Cooperation MP Alekos Tryfonidis expressed frustration for the lack of support for groups that the Government must support. Regarding the leisure centers in particular, he said that a reasonable explanation has not yet been given by the Minister of Finance why they are not reimbursed. He said the same about the people of civilization. He also demanded compensation for the natural disaster suffered by fishermen in the port of Katon Pyrgos.
DIKO MP Christiana Erotokritou welcomed that about half of the budget is spent on defense shields. At the same time, he said that classes of the population and businessmen such as leisure centers, despite the promises they received during the pandemic, still expect to receive about 1 million euros and the Ministry of Finance is “whistling indifferently”. He also said that they will vote for the second amendment of AKEL.
Controversy over the assistants of the independent officials
Regarding the amendment of DIKO for the assistants of the independent institutions, Attorney General, Auditor General Mrs. Erotokritou stated that while a dispute is pending before the Supreme Court, for which he is called to decide, any change from what is in force today is not correct.
DISY MP Haris Georgiadis expressed satisfaction because the largest difference is in the defense shield. Regarding the amendment of DIKO for the appointment of the Assistants of the independent officials, he stated that he accepted the opinion of the then Attorney General in 2014 Costas Clerides about the Assistant Attorney General. Today, as he said, there is a new opinion from the current Attorney General and it should be respected today. He added that there was no case pending before the Court.
The President of EDEK Marinos Sizopoulos in his turn welcomed that 30% of the supplementary budget concerns armament programs of EF, stating that in recent years serious steps have been taken to upgrade the equipment and operational capacity of EF. Responding to Mr. Georgiadis, he said that there are opinions of the Attorney General for illegalities and irregularities that have not been implemented and implemented.
Mr. Tryfonidis stated that we must apply the opinion of the Attorney General on the matter.
AKEL MP Irini Charalambidou asked Mr. Georgiadis not to be selective regarding which prosecutor adopts the opinions. The Anastasiadis Government, he said, “taught me to challenge the opinion of the Attorney General, especially if he is a former Minister of the Anastasiadis Government.” He said that in 2015 DISY challenged and undermined Costas Clerides and they said that the courts should decide.
Mr. Georgiadis said that Ms. Charalambidou is “unacceptable for learning” and that despite his opinion as Minister of the Government, he immediately compulsorily adopted the opinion and implemented it by amending the state budget.
Limassol MP Andreas Themistokleous said that they did not need to undermine Costas Clerides, because “he was undermining himself”. In no country in the world, he said, did the Attorney General consider requesting the waiver of a Member of Parliament's immunity for an offense paid with a fine and even for a traffic violation.
He also said that in the 2015 budgets for the first time an attempt was made to enter into the dispute between the Attorney General and the Assistant. Is there anyone, he wondered, who perceives the word Assistant Prosecutor as a “butler-type assistant” who lacks authority. He spoke of mentalities reminiscent of “little kingdoms”.
EDEK MP Kostis Efstathiou said that the opinion of the Attorney General has the value of legal advice and nothing more. No one can adopt or reject the opinions of the Attorney General. He added that the constitution refers to an Assistant Attorney General and not an Assistant Attorney General. .
AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaidis said that the issue should be addressed by the court and that it is the worst thing for the Parliament to intervene with an additional budget.
AKEL Amendment for cross-funding for the Griva Digeni Foundation
Mr. Loukaidis also asked for an oral amendment to commit the amount of approximately 43 thousand euros for the EOKA museum and the Griva Digenis monument, stating that the Government tried to mislead by avoiding the references to the Georgios Grivas Digenis Foundation in the text of the budget. described DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis as a “destroyer and destroyer of Cyprus”. He also criticized the characterizations of a destroyer and destroyer of Cyprus, stating that AKEL's Gembel propaganda must stop at some point.
Mr Loukaidis said that audacity has exceeded all limits by attributing to them gembelism and countered that history has recorded the data.
The President of DIKO, Nikolas Papadopoulos, agreed with the request for an oral amendment, although, as he said, it is a paradoxical process. However, he also referred to the paradox of the executive power that changed the verbal to an article that was already rejected by the Parliament and there was no parliamentary control.
The President of ELAM Christos Christou said that Mr. Loukaidis thinks that he is speaking at the EDON camp and not at the Parliament. We, he added, fully respect the epic of EOKA 55-59, of which Georgios Grivas Digenis was the leader. This body, he said, decided to declare Digenis a worthy child of the homeland.
Parliament Speaker Zacharias Koulias said that the EOKA struggle liberated Cyprus, we are grateful to these people, but said that the subsequent course of Digenis led to the destruction of Cyprus.
The Member of Parliament for Ecologists Alexandra Attalidou said that the latter honor the former and not the former the latter. The latter, he said, is a divided country. Some, he added, were lost because others had very big ideas about their own nationalism.
Mr. Themistokleous said that AKEL fought Digenis with the same attitude from the first steps in the EOKA struggle, that Grivas died six months before the coup and that the contribution of both leaders of the EOKA struggle should be recognized.
Source: KYPE
