House approves European Constitution in 30-19 vote

The House of Representatives approved the European Constitution after an all-day marathon session Thursday, despite opposition by the main coalition partner, the communist AKEL.

A bomb hoax interrupted the morning session of the debate just before noon, with MPs resuming their arguments early in the afternoon in time for the final vote at 7pm.

Thursday’s session approved the document with 30 votes from the opposition DISY, the ruling DIKO and Socialist Edek, the newly established European Party bloc and the smaller parties voting in favour.

AKEL rejected the European Constitution with 19 MPs voting against, in line with the Left Alliance in the European Parliament. The Environmentalists’ single Yiorgos Perdikis abstained.

AKEL press spokesman Andros Kyprianou vehemently defended his party’s decision, with the debate turning political and old foes airing more of their differences, as opposed to the pros and cons of the issues contained in the European Constitution.

AKEL parliamentary spokesman, Nicos Katsourides, said during the first round of the debate that started on Wednesday that his party “which places national interest over and above class and social orientations” would not hesitate to take a different stance “if we believed that the non ratification of the Constitution would affect in a negative way the question of Cyprus.”

Cyprus is the first E.U. member state to ratify the Constitution after the failure of EU leaders to approve it at their June summit two weeks ago.

Many speakers argued that provisions in the European Constitution could help find a political settlement in Cyprus, consistent with the EU principles of justice, freedom and respect for human rights, saying that Turkey, in its bid to join the Union, would also be asked to align its policies and attitude with the Constitution.