FOLLOWING its 2016 country report on Cyprus issued in April the European Commission issued Cyprus with a number of recommendations concerning the island’s national reform programme on Tuesday:
- Following the correction of the excessive deficit, respect the medium-term budgetary objective in 2016 and in 2017. By the end of 2016, adopt a binding mechanism containing the growth rate of the compensation of public employees. By the end of 2016, adopt the horizontal reform of the public administration and the law on the governance of state-owned entities, and implement the reform of local governments. By the end of 2016, adopt the secondary legislation to complete the new budgetary framework.
- By June 2017, ensure reliable and swift systems for the issuance of title deeds and the transfer of immovable property rights. Eliminate impediments to the full implementation of the insolvency and foreclosure frameworks and ensure adequate resources for the Insolvency Service. Increase the efficiency and capacity of the court system. Reform the civil procedure law.
- By the end of 2016, take measures to ensure a decline in non-performing loans and accurate valuations of collateral for provisioning purposes. Increase the range of information available for creditors to make the credit registry fully operational.
- Remove impediments to investment, notably by implementing the action plan for growth, pursuing the privatisation plan and strengthening the national regulatory authorities. Take measures to increase access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Enhance the capacity of the public employment services and their provision to the long-term unemployed; improve outreach to the non-registered unemployed. Adopt legislation for a hospital reform and advance with the planned implementation of universal health care coverage.
Further reading
Council recommendation on the 2016 national reform programme of Cyprus
@Scruffy, good point is there any news on this alpha case recently? If the trapped buyers law is deemed unconstitutional , what happens to all those who have received their deeds via this law thus far?
It will get messier and messier if it goes alphas way. The state knows it is at fault partially for the whole mess. When it came to buyers submitting their sales agreement at the land registries (and in many cases this is before full payment of a purchase had been made) the land reg. should have had checks in place to inform the buyer that what he/she was intending to buy was encumbered or had other ‘issues’ etc.
States fault for no curbing of the every tom dick and harry becoming a developer wave
States fault for no mandatory minimum set of requirements when it came to drawing up sales agreements by such ‘developers’
To top this all off there were all too many legal persons who outright illegal….let’s not get started on the banks and appraisers now.
(Ed: No news on the Alpha Bank case. I don’t know if there’ll be a hearing as such or whether the court will judge the rights and wrongs on the evidence presented.)
I think that an awful lot more than people realise depends on the success or otherwise re the Alpha Bank’s court challenge that the “Trapped Buyers Law” is unconstitutional.
I suspect that the judge who has referred it to a higher court, without specifying a time-scale, had one eye on the proximity of upcoming elections.
Given the mess that was made of the “Shop Opening” law recently, I fear the same can happen here.
What the LR are doing or not doing, may well become academic should Alpha Bank win their case.
You can imagine the Government officials in their Government offices… “Yee yee yee they’re at it again, just ignore them and they’ll go away”
Just like they did last time. What a shame that we have such a low level of Government officials that they need to be told.
The EU can recommend all they want.
Siga-siga and vested interests rule here.
Not one to praise the govt, and don’t want to speak too soon as a trapped buyer I don’t have my deeds yet, but seems that the trapped buyers law was one law (albeit with holes in it) that will allow some people relief …. A lot to be improved don’t get me wrong e.g I am moving via the law for my deeds, after paying all dues owed for ‘my portion’ as requested I called up the land reg asking when the letter to the interested parties was sent…. and the lady plucked out the 24th April as the date, a Sunday!) I corrected her and said you mean today? Either way the letter was sent, called again today and was told the letter was sent out on the 20th April and there has been no feedback from either party …. I think the lack of accountability by a fair few of them means they can get away with murder. Was also called today by the green party! When asked where they got my number they told me it was in a letter I sent them re the trapped buyers law, a letter I sent to the leader of the party (over 8 months ago!) nice of you to call up now you want votes I said, and ended the conversation there! Got a lot going for it this island but a lot of cons too!
(Ed: I have a number of friends living in Limassol who have received their Title Deeds and who have a particularly obnoxious developer. Another, who featured in a TV programme several years ago, has just paid his Property Transfer Fees and should be getting his Title Deed early next month (his developer’s company is in receivership).
As of two months ago Land Registries had received more than 8,500 applications of which 3,000 had deeds – and had prepared 20,000 files for the Municipalities to sign off. They’re up to their eyes in it.)
Our title deeds have been ready for almost 2 years and we are no further forward to getting them. The developers are blaming everyone but themselves, the land registry and the municipality primarily. Nothing seems to be moving even though we have lodged our claim at the court and at the Land Registry. ‘It’s in the system’ is all we get.
(Ed: I suggest you visit the Land Registry to find out exactly what’s causing the delay – as your Title Deeds are ready, it cannot be the Municipality. Have you applied for the deeds under the provisions of the ‘trapped buyers’ law?)
We ignored most of what was asked of us in the past so do they really think we will comply with these reminders / recommendations.
These recommendations are old hat now. These were put in place whilst Cyprus were applying for the last tranche of money. Now that all the monies have been given to Cyprus everything will return back to a snail’s pace.
What the EU recommend and what Cyprus do are light years apart.
(Ed: When I met with senior officers at the Dept of Lands & Surveys Head Office in Nicosia they said that further improvements to the issuance & transfer of Title Deeds were planned for this year. But they would not give me any details.)