Letymbiotis furious as House refuses to extend Raouna’s term in office

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis on Friday expressed fury after parliament on Thursday night refused to acquiesce to the government’s request that European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna’s term in office be extended until the end of this year. Raouna was appointed as deputy minister in advance of and for the purpose of overseeing Cyprus’ six-month term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency during the first half of this year. She took office in January 2024, with the legislation implemented to allow the creation of the post foreseeing that it would cease to exist at the end of this month, one month after the end of Cyprus’ six-month term. This was also the procedure followed when late president Demetris Christofias appointed Andreas Mavroyiannis as his European affairs deputy minister when the island first held the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency in the second half of 2012. He ceased to be a deputy minister on January 31, 2013. However, on this occasion, the government had wished to extend Raouna’s term in office, and parliament’s rejection of this proposal received a terse response from Letymbiotis. “A two-page bill which, however, had great importance for this country and its national aspirations, was rejected. Yesterday [Disy MP Demetris] Demetriou said that the problem was the urgent nature of the procedure. There was no time to ‘study’ it. Except that essentially, there was one change they had to study,” he said. This change, he added, was “replacing the date of July 31, 2026 with the date of December 13, 2026”. “This is the change that they did not have time to study,” he said. However, he said, on Friday, Disy MP Onoufrios Koulla had said that “the European affairs deputy ministry is not needed either”, before lambasting this position. “Obviously, the 22 European Union member states which have an organised political structure for European issues have got something wrong, and obviously, by the same token, Cyprus does not need such a structure either, even though it is a country with a national issue, with critical European negotiations ahead of it, and with the Cyprus problem’s European dimension gaining even greater importance,” he said. He said that “the argument that the Republic of Cyprus has been in the European Union for 22 years without this structure is anachronistic, to say the least”. “States evolve. Needs change. European politics today requires knowledge, continuity, contacts, presence and organised handling,” he said. As such, he said, the proposed five-month extension to Raouna’s term in office was “important” because “critical consultations are underway” for the EU’s next multiannual financial framework – the bloc’s budget for the period covering the years between 2028 and 2034. On this front, he said that the multiannual financial framework will concern “the resources which the Republic of Cyprus will secure for the next seven years”, including “for projects in our villages, towns and cities, for our farmers, for cohesion, migration, defence and security”. In Brussels, politicians are racing to reach a comprehensive agreement on the budget by the end of this year so as to ward off the risk of elections next year in France and Poland – and the possible election of the far right in both countries – derailing efforts to reach an agreement. “In this discussion, what counts is knowledge, experience, the relationships built during Cyprus’ presidency and the country’s ability to intervene in an organised and effective manner,” Letymbiotis said on Friday. He also criticised Akel, which also voted the proposal down, saying that the party “remained faithful to its well-known woodenness”, before returning to the issue of Disy, saying that the party “unfortunately chose to stand against its very European starting point”. “On the altar of some people’s desire to prove they are in opposition, the Republic of Cyprus’ crucial strategic aspirations are being sacrificed. At such moments, votes are not counted, they are weighed, and yesterday, priorities, judgements and motivations were weighed. Unfortunately, other things prevailed,” he said. He closed his statement by saying that he expects parliament to change its mind next week, as “they will certainly have had time to study the issue of whether they are truly embracing a deeply substantive political approach”.