Members of the ruling communist AKEL and the Democratic Party (DIKO) walked out of the House Commerce Committee meeting last week that was about to discuss the impact from the adoption of the euro.
The argument arose when the coalition MPs accused Committee Chairman Lefteris Christoforou of the opposition Democratic Rally (DISY), of manipulating the discussion for political benefit in the run up to the May parliamentary elections.
Chistoforou challenged the accusations saying that AKEL, in its usual euro-skepticism was evading discussion of the euro.
Christoforou added that AKEL cabinet ministers voted in favour of introducing the euro on January 1, 2008, as against the party line of extending it to a year later in order not to lose out on social benefits.
AKEL MP Stavros Evaghorou said his party insisted on the 2009 introduction date but respected the government’s view.
The argument contradicts statements by President Tassos Papadopoulos who told foreign correspondents during his annual press briefing that there was no dispute with AKEL in the coalition government, even though the euro is a key policy issue.
“In any case, we cannot join the eurozone before May 2007,” he said.
“It is not just the two-year waiting period within the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM2) but other conditions we have to meet as well,” Papadopoulos added.
“I’m glad to see the economy is doing quite well, but if in order to join the eurozone we have to restrict the programme of social measures, then we are not going to sacrifice the social measures.”
“I think we can make it and AKEL never said they would withdraw from the government if we do (adopt the euro in 2008),” Papadopoulos said.
The president said he was very pleased with European Union accession and that Cyprus remained a net contributor, even though the rate of contribution to the E.U. budget is reduced as Cyprus earns more benefits from Brussels.
“Because a serious mistake was made in our statistics in 1999, it appeared that we were richer than we really were,” Papadopoulos said, refraining from blaming the previous administration for the error, but rather saying it was the fault of “wrong estimates by experts” who miscalculated value added tax (VAT) and import duty earnings in their projections.
“This is why in the 2007-20013 budget there is specific mention if Cyprus, clarifying that because of the statistical mistake in the past, this default must be corrected,” he concluded.
