The government will be touring more than 30 municipalities in the coming weeks as part of its campaign to raise awareness of the EU constitution ahead of its discussion in parliament coming weeks.
The government hopes to ratify the constitution, which in January was rejected by the AKEL deputies at the European Parliament, by the end of May.
The information campaign will include lectures and discussions in the municipalities, while the government will also encourage discussions on the television stations.
Speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Economist magazine on Thursday, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides reiterated the government’s support for the constitution.
“[Cyprus] agrees with the objectives of the new Constitution, which are to make the framework of the operation more concise and clear, to achieve a closer link to its citizens and make it more democratic,” he said.
His comments reflect the hope among many Greek Cypriots that the Constitution, by incorporating the Fundamental Charter on Human Rights, will strengthen the Greek Cypriot case in negotiations over the Cyprus problem, particularly with regard to residency and property rights.
“The Constitution lends credence to the view that a Cyprus solution must create the context within which Greek and Turkish Cypriots may enjoy the rights appurtenant to their EU status at par with their 450 million EU co-citizens. Any arrangement deviating from this axiom risks creating as far as Cyprus is concerned a “two-level” Europe,” he said.
Among the speakers who wholeheartedly supported the Constitution, Vice-President of the opposition DISY party Katy Clerides, who spoke about the social aspects of the Constitution, welcomed the reference in Article 2-1 to “a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”, but added that it need to be “transformed into a reality” not just in Cyprus but elsewhere.
In the less enthusiastic camp, Bruce Clark, the Economist’s Europe Editor, explained the reasons why the Economist ‘newspaper’, as its employees call it, has opposed the Constitution since its final draft.
“It didn’t in our opinion produce the clarity that we needed,” he said.
The Economist is particularly concerned about the incorporation of the Fundamental Charter on Human Rights and trying to legislate detail on social policy.
Noting that the French opponents of the Constitution say it is too liberal but the British opponents say it is too socialist, Clark said that this demonstrates how there is “too much detail on how these social policies are implemented.”
Stelios Platis, Professor at the Cyprus Institute of International Management and advisor to opposition leader Nicos Anastassiades, also had reservations about the constitution, although did not oppose it entirely.
He was particularly concerned about its lack of teeth for tackling the underperformance of the European economy.
“The drafters of the constitution seem on many occasions to have made a conscious effort to leave the exact parameters of the politically-sensitive economic policy as ambiguous as possible and as far away from Brussels,” he said, raising the risk the Europe will be “relegated to permanent second-class socio-economic status relegated to the second tier.”
