CYPRUS: New delay in foreclosures bill

The House plenary, scheduled to convene on Monday to discuss a series of draft bills on foreclosures, will be postponed until the end of next week, and possibly until Friday, September 5th.

President of the House Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs Nicolas Papadopoulos, speaking on Friday during the extraordinary session of the House Committees on Financial and Internal Affairs, said that “the deadline is extremely tight” due to the large number of amendments that have been submitted by the political parties and which need to be screened by the House and the Republic`s Law Office.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, who also attended the session, said that he has already informed Cyprus international lenders, known as the Troika, about this “inconvenience” and is expected to receive a reply concerning the extension today.

Georgiades said moreover that there is time until the end of next week for the House plenary to convene, in order to discuss the draft bills. “Therefore, the House has a few more days at its disposal”, the Minister added.

The discussion continued but the rest of the session was closed to the Press.

Earlier today, political parties submitted a number of amendments to the draft bills, in the presence of the Finance and Interior Ministers, the Attorney General and the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus.

The draft bills need to be approved before the next Eurogroup meeting, in mid September, for the country to receive the next tranche of international assistance.