Cyprus to ask for Russia sanctions compensation

Cyprus will want to be compensated for economic losses that will result from further sanctions imposed on Russia, the island’s President Nicos Anastasiades said in a statement issued following the March 20-12 EU Council that discussed the Ukraine situation.

“The next phase of restrictive measures will admittedly include extensive consequences on the economic and other relations between the European Union - and its member states - and Russia. Our country is not only facing our national problem but is also under a financial assistance program. This factor cannot be ignored or overlooked. As other member states we cannot accept measures affecting Cyprus tourism, our banking system or our services sector,” Anastasiades said.

“In such a case and if there is a need for such a development, which obviously will require a new decision at European Council level, Cyprus calls for, and considers as a precondition, that the competent bodies of the EU will conduct a relevant study, both for the Union as a whole and for each member state separately. Consequently, Cyprus will insist on substantial compensatory measures,” Anastasiades said.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades arrives at the EU headquarters in Brussels on March 21, 2014 on the second day of a two-day European Council summit. AFP

Last spring Cyprus was forced to ask its EU partners and the IMF for a €10 billion euro bailout. At the time the country was forced to take measures that would lead to a contraction of its banking and financial services sector which the EU said was oversized. There was extensive speculation that the bailout was also aimed at the savings Russians had for years been stashing in Cypriot bank accounts and properties. Moody's estimates that Russian banks and individuals had around €15 billion in Cypriot banks before the bailout - in which depositors with the country's two biggest banks were actually bailed in.

“The Cypriot economy will suffer if further sanctions are enforced and the situation we are in anything that harms the economy must be avoided,” a senior Cypriot government official told New Europe today.


Cyprus to ask for Russia sanctions compensation
Maria Kagkelidou neurope.eu