Brussels, 04/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 4 March, the Cypriot parliament approved the new privatisation law by 30 to 26. This is one of the two preconditions laid down by Eurogroup on Monday 10 March for the disbursement of aid of €150 million from the European Stability Mechanism, in theory at the beginning of April.
The draft bill will privatise the national port authority and telecom operator by 2016 and the Cypriot electricity company by 2018, and was rejected by the chamber last week (see EUROPE 11029). It is hoped that €1.5 billion will be raised from these privatisations.
Prodromos Prodromou, a parliamentarian from the ruling DISY party, said that there were “very few changes in wording” in the new bill, but he told EUROPE that one change was that the new law will not alter existing rules on labour law and the status of workers, and an amendment setting out reservations on collective bargaining agreements was not passed.
The next controversial draft law is on making it easier to evict house-owners who do not pay their mortgages. Here, Prodromou explained that a way has to be found to protect the most vulnerable households, and he suggested a moratorium on emergency cases, as was the case in Spain. The troika would probably not accept a general moratorium on evictions. A high-ranking EU official recently made similar comments (see EUROPE 11018).
The other required “prior action” is a law to boost budget discipline - which has already been passed. Once Eurogroup has given the go-ahead for the aid disbursement, the national parliaments that have to give their approval (the Bundestag, for example) will have until 15 March to do so. The IMF is expected to authorise the disbursement of €86 million. (EL)