Cyprus leaves ‘digital mark’ on EU agenda, says Damianou

Cyprus used its six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU to push forward key European files on digital policy, artificial intelligence, research and innovation, Deputy Minister Nicodemos Damianou said, arguing that the country had helped shape a more ambitious agenda for Europe’s technological future. Speaking on CyBC’s Apo Mera se Mera, Damianou said the Presidency had received broad recognition from European partners, something he linked to the preparation, coordination and management shown throughout the six-month term. “The broad recognition that the Cyprus Presidency has received from our European partners reflects the serious preparation, collective effort and effective management that have characterised these six months,” he said in a statement following the interview. He added that, particularly in the areas of digital policy, research and innovation, the Cyprus Presidency had promoted an agenda with “tangible results for Europe’s competitiveness and technological autonomy”. For Damianou, the success of a Council Presidency is measured not simply by the number of meetings held, but by whether it delivers on the targets it sets. In Cyprus’ case, those targets were closely tied to Europe’s wider effort to strengthen its position in technology, innovation and global competitiveness. Damianou said this debate had been shaped in large part by the Draghi report, published in September 2024, which warned that Europe risked losing ground unless it invested more seriously in technological development. Since then, he said, the EU has placed stronger emphasis on strategic autonomy, technological independence and a single market that allows companies and innovative ideas to grow more easily across member states. This matters, he noted, because 85 per cent of European businesses currently depend on technologies from outside Europe, including cloud services and artificial intelligence tools. That context made the Cyprus Presidency particularly demanding, as it coincided with discussions among member states on a broad set of legislative and policy files. These included cybersecurity, connectivity, digital infrastructure, space technologies, artificial intelligence, research and innovation. Damianou said the same issue of dependence was also visible in space technology, where Europe continues to rely heavily on systems developed elsewhere, including satellite technologies from the United States. Artificial intelligence, however, stood at the centre of the discussion, with the recent conference held in Nicosia as part of the Presidency focusing on Europe’s immediate technological future and how member states could shape it together. At the same time, Cyprus helped advance one of the EU’s largest research files, reaching agreement among member states on the structure and direction of the next European research and innovation framework programme for 2028 to 2034. Damianou described it as a difficult dossier, involving complex negotiations between 27 member states, and said the new programme is expected to have roughly double the budget of the current Horizon Europe programme, which stands at about €95 billion. Alongside the main legislative work, Cyprus also sought to bring forward broader issues linked to the digital transition, including the protection of minors online. Damianou said the issue had become more urgent because artificial intelligence tools have made the online environment more complex and, in some cases, more dangerous, particularly for young people. The discussions, he said, focused on two main questions: where age limits should be set for access to online platforms, and how platforms should be required to verify users’ ages. He warned that leaving the issue entirely to platforms had not proved effective, as many services simply ask users to declare their age without carrying out meaningful checks. Beyond the European files, Damianou said the Presidency had also given Cyprus an opportunity to present its own research and innovation ecosystem to European partners. He agreed that one of the less visible benefits of the Presidency was the closer contact between Cypriot technocrats, scientists and businesses and their counterparts across the EU. Through this process, he said, Cyprus was able to showcase the work being done locally in fields such as medicine, artificial intelligence and applied digital solutions. The country, he added, now has a more developed ecosystem than in the past, allowing it to speak with more substance about its ambition to become a regional hub for innovation, knowledge and cooperation. Asked what citizens should expect next from the digital Cyprus agenda, Damianou said the digitalisation of the state was continuing, although more work was needed to make existing services better known to the public. He pointed to a recently launched online police service, saying around 850 citizens had used it within one week to obtain a clean criminal record certificate online. He also referred to the long-delayed digital justice system, saying it had now entered pilot operation in cooperation with the Cyprus Bar Association and the judicial service. Further work is also under way on new systems for the Road Transport Department, digital services linked to the Deputy Ministry of Migration, and the Registrar of Companies. Damianou said work was also restarting more intensively on the Digital Citizen initiative, with further results expected over the next six months and during 2027. He noted that digital identity had already been used in elections, although not yet at the level he would like. Over the past 12 months, he said, around 42,000 citizens had used online civil registry services for documents such as identity cards and birth certificates. Still, he acknowledged that many people continue to visit citizen service centres for procedures that can already be completed online. For that reason, Damianou said the next stage is not only to launch more digital services, but also to explain them better and help citizens feel more comfortable using them. The wider aim, he said, is for Cyprus to contribute to a Europe that strengthens its own technological base while remaining open to cooperation. That approach, he concluded, was reflected in the motto of the Cyprus Presidency, an autonomous Union, open to the world.