CYPRUS REMAKE TO BEGIN WITH BUSINESS CREATION

 Cyprus Mail 1 November 2020 - by Andrew Rosenbaum

Solar panels being installed on a residential roof

The Cyprus remake, a series of EU funded programmes that will affect every aspect of life in the country, will begin in the new year. The first of these will involve the creation of new businesses, sources at the Ministry of energy, commerce, industry and tourism told the Cyprus Mail.

Meanwhile, proposals from the various ministries themselves for grants under the same fund are under review, with the entire plan for Cyprus scheduled to be completed by December.

None of this activity has been held up in any way by the delay in the European Parliament to pass both the EU budget and the European Recovery Fund itself. The parliament will be in session on November 11, where this is due to be discussed again. But sources at both the energy and finance ministries said it is expected to pass and work on implementing it is ongoing according to schedule.

A team including the Directorate-General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development, others from the finance and other ministries is currently at work putting together the island’s plan.

Flagship projects include digitalisation in both the public and private sectors, clean technologies, 5G and broadband improvements, a remodel of education, support for research and development, ‘green deal’ projects and much more.

All of these will be sent as a plan to ‘remake Cyprus’ first to the European Commission and then to the European Council for final approval.

One such project, currently in proposal form, is a fund to support SMEs in the services sector. There has for some time been support for these companies in production sectors, but service businesses, which account for more than half of the country’s GDP, would now have a chance for growth funding as well – assuming the project is approved by the Commission.

Some of the first new programmes that will change Cyprus will be funded by the European Structural Funds, however, and the team is also putting together projects under this aegis.

There are four important projects scheduled to start taking applications just after the new year, ministry sources said, and three are intended to create new businesses.

This is in line with European Commission recommendations as outlined in the Commission’s country report for Cyprus: “Access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises is improving but still challenging. Given the still high level of non-performing loans, banks’ appetite to lend is rather low and bank credit supply is limited. Alternatives to bank loans and grant finance are evolving.”

The report calls for further action on these recommendations, and the following projects form an important part of the response.

A project to provide incentives to employees at existing businesses or to other businesspeople to start their own businesses is mature and will kick off in January or February, ministry sources said. This is a new project, targeting highly skilled workers who have everything they need to create start-up businesses except the funds required.

Another project targets existing SMEs in manufacturing. This is intended for mature enterprises, to provide further support and funding. Cyprus’ manufacturing output has declined steadily over the past months, and the companies need funds to recover and improve competitivity.

There is another quite different project regarding energy efficiency which is expected to take applications after January. The project to install photovoltaics on a much larger range of houses across Cyprus will be one of the first to start up if approved. But the energy efficiency project will target other improvements such as replacing leaky windows and installing insulation – anything needed to retain heat and cooling so that electricity demand can be reduced.

Finally, the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, in an attempt to promote and encourage entrepreneurship among young people, plans to expand its current ‘Scheme for Youth Entrepreneurship.’

The current scheme is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, which is a structural fund. Further funding is sought for developing, supporting and encouraging entrepreneurship by young people between the ages of 20 and 40 who wish to establish an enterprise in the sectors of manufacturing, services, tourist activities and e-commerce.

This is a scheme for young people who have never established a business before or who are unemployed. The intention is to favour new technologies. The grant is offered as a percentage (50 per cent) on the approved budget with a maximum amount of €70,000 for the manufacturing sector, and €50,000 for other sectors – these grants are made to businesses of every kind.

Sources at the finance ministry have said that there has been a robust response from the ministries, with an extensive gammut of proposals, along with plans to make the necessary legislative reforms that must accompany some of them.

One such proposal provides a substantial sum for the support of local authorities. The plan for Cyprus calls for “the reduction of the number of municipalities, along with the increase in their autonomy and functions.” Personnel training for these new functions is also part of the proposal.

Urban development that attempts to achieve balance between growth and the preservation of open space in rural and suburban settings, is also a Commission priority and a recommendation for Cyprus.

But the programme depends on the passage of reform legislation in the Cyprus parliament without delay, yet these measures have been on the table for a long time. Similarly, measures involving the reform of the justice system have been under consideration by parliament, and must be passed if the significant programme to improve the Cyprus judicial system is to be funded by the European Recovery Fund.

Read More

SELF-DRIVE, ELECTRIC CARS AWAIT NEW RULES

 Cyprus Mail 1 November 2020 - by Reuters News Service

Self-drive car -- Commission to set new rules for self-drive, electric cars

A group of business leaders and public policy experts is launching a new body to grapple with thorny questions surrounding the future of transportation including self-driving and electric vehicles.

The Commission on the Future of Mobility, reported earlier by Reuters, was formally unveiled on Friday. The group plans to propose a new regulatory framework to address a global transportation sector “on the cusp of a worldwide transition driven by shared, connected, autonomous, and electric technologies.”

Alisyn Malek, the commission’s executive director, told Reuters the goal is to tackle tough problems and improve safety.

“Let’s bring everybody together to talk about how do we want the movement of people and goods to actually work,” Malek said in an interview.

Autonomous cars and delivery trucks, package-carrying drones, air taxis, connected vehicles and Hyperloop systems are among transit advances that could revolutionize travel.

Traffic crashes remain a major problem. The World Health Organization estimates 1.35 million people die and 20 to 50 million are injured annually in vehicle crashes.

The commission will be co-chaired by Jared Cohon, president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University, former Ford Motor F.N CEO Jim Hackett and Transdev Group CEO Thierry Mallet.

“Progress can only continue if we modernize the way policy and regulation work,” Hackett said.

Governments, including the United States, have struggled to adopt regulations to allow for wide-scale adoption of next-generation transportation like self-driving cars amid safety concerns.

Regulators are hiking fuel efficiency requirements, while California and many European countries want to end new gasoline-powered passenger vehicle sales by 2035.

The commission says in an overview document that “current regulatory requirements governing fuel economy standards and vehicle safety fail to reflect the transformation occurring in powertrains, autonomy, and models of mobility.”

The group wants to recommend in 2022 “a framework for regulations in the American, European, and Asian markets post-2025 that reflects and facilitates the technological transformation taking place” for emissions and safety regulations.

 

Goodyear Tire & Rubber GT.O CEO Richard Kramer, FedEx FDX.N CEO Fred Smith and Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf will be on the commission, as will Hyundai Motor 005380.KS Chief Operating Officer José Muñoz. It expects to add members before its February kickoff.

The commission is housed within SAFE, a nonpartisan organization focusing on energy security issues.

SAFE CEO Robbie Diamond said the goal is to rethink everything. “If you had to rewrite regulations and policy from scratch knowing what we know about technology today … what you would do differently?” he asked. “We want to think big.”

Read More

REPORTED 53 CITIZENS AND 6 PREMISES FOR VIOLATIONS OF MEASURES

 Filenews 1 November 2020 

The complaint of 53 citizens and 6 premises for violations of measures against the spread of the coronavirus was made by the Police in the last 24 hours.

As a police representative told the CYPE, in the last 24 hours ended at 06:00 on Sunday, a total of 1,615 checks were carried out throughout free Cyprus.

The majority of complaints concerned the non-use of a protective mask.

In Nicosia 261 checks were carried out and 18 citizens and 1 premises were reported, in Limassol 323 with complaints from 16 citizens and 1 premises and in Larnaca 363 checks were carried out and 13 citizens were reported and also 1 premises.

In Paphos, the Police carried out 239 checks reporting 2 citizens and 3 premises, in Famagusta 330 checks were carried out and 4 citizen complaints were made, while in the Morfos area 68 checks were carried out without any complaints being made. Finally, the Port Police carried out 31 checks without making any complaints.

Source: eyenews/KYPE

Read More

AS EUROPE'S GOVERNMENTS LOSE CONTROL OF COVID, REVOLT IS IN THE AIR

 The Guardian 1 November 2020 - by Julian Coman

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

As the second wave of Covid-19 filled hospital wards across Europe last week, and countries inched reluctantly towards varying degrees of partial lockdown, television schedules were cleared to allow leaders to address weary nations.

Announcing a 6pm curfew for the country’s restaurants and bars the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, called for national unity. “If we all respect these new rules during the month of November,” he said, “we will succeed in keeping the epidemiological curve under control. That way we will be able to ease the restrictions and move into the Christmas festivities with greater serenity.”

Speaking from the Elysée, a sombre Emmanuel Macron decreed a new national lockdown, lasting until at least 1 December, and warned France the new wave of infections was likely to be “deadlier than the first”. In Belgium, where Covid is spreading faster than in any other European country, the new prime minister, Alexander De Croo, hoped “a team of 11 million Belgians” would pull together to follow tighter regulations.

In tone and spirit, the messages echoed those delivered in March, when shock and fear led populations to rally round leaders and consent to restrictions unknown outside wartime. Eight months on, that kind of trust and goodwill is in short supply.

Europe, once again, is the centre of the global pandemic, accounting for almost half the world’s infections last week. But as desperately needed financial support fails to materialise, and track and trace systems fail to cope with the surge, there is public exasperation and, in some cases, open rebellion. On Friday evening, protestors threw molotov cocktails at police in Florence, in the latest outbreak of social unrest following Conte’s new rules.

Tino Esposito, a Neapolitan barber, is one of those who has lost faith in the orders coming from the top. In his home city, Esposito is leading a group of small businessmen in a campaign against the new restrictions. “We are protesting,” he says, “because all European governments, including ours, have found themselves unprepared for the second wave. Since March they were saying that, in October or November, the second wave would come and that it would be even more serious.

© Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters gather in Paris to protest against the latest measures adopted by the French government.

“But no preparation has been put in place for our schools, the health system, jobs, or the providing of incentives. And the financial support we were promised is not there to access. But businesses must have it if they are to stay closed and staff need unemployment money immediately.”

Across the continent, there is similar evidence of people facing dire economic hardship and psychological exhaustion. Earlier this month, a study from the World Health Organization reported widespread apathy and reduced motivation to follow public health guidance. The emotional toll of Covid-19 has been compounded by a growing scepticism in the capacity of governments to truly get on top of a crisis that is destroying people’s livelihoods as well as threatening their health.

According to the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, the continent’s partial economic recovery in the summer and early autumn was “unequal, uncertain and incomplete”. As the second wave hits, she said in a recent interview, “it now risks being extinguished.”

© Provided by The Guardian Protesters gather at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to demand financial assistance during the second wave of the pandemic. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

From Milan to Manchester, and Marseille to Madrid, that prospect has sparked a wave of revolts. After the spring lockdown was eased, the subsequent patchwork of regulations and restrictions hit some workers, and regions far harder than others. Madrid has railed against a new 10pm curfew, leading the Spanish government to impose a state of emergency on the capital. The mayors of nine cities, including Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague and Milan, have by-passed their national governments to write directly to the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, demanding access to the €750bn (£676bn) EU recovery fund. In Germany, where a partial lockdown beginson Monday, thousands of workers and employers in the arts and hospitality industries marched in Berlin last week, demanding greater financial support. Freelancers across the continent have fallen through the cracks of state support for those unable to work.

© Provided by The Guardian Riot police fire tear gas during a protest against the latest Covid restrictions in Italy. Photograph: Claudio Furlan/AP

In Italy, a tipping point appears to be disturbingly close. Angry demonstrations erupted in Naples just over a week ago, after a local curfew was imposed. The protests were followed by civil disorder in Milan and Turin, where luxury stores were looted. “I think this is only the beginning”, says the Italian journalist and author of Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano. “In the first lockdown, Italians were united in the idea that this was a wholly novel emergency; a situation that any government would find difficult to deal with. Now they feel deceived.

“They’ve been told that things were going well, that we were winning. But their savings have been used up, they can see the problems with a testing system that isn’t working, and there is confusion and disagreement between the scientists. People have started to lose faith in the capacity of institutions to save them.”

There will be unrest across Europe. It will come because the centre isn’t holding any more

Roberto Saviano

A poll following last week’s mini-riots found that over three-quarters of Italians believe there will be more violence in the streets this winter.

“There will be unrest across Europe too,” says Saviano. “It will happen in different ways and with different catalysts, but it will come because the centre isn’t holding any more. We are a world away from the mood in March when it was a case of ‘we must follow the rules and protect ourselves or we will perish.’ Now some people think, well, I’m going under anyway if I can’t survive economically.”

The geographer Christophe Guilluy, whose books have charted the growing social divisions between provincial and metropolitan France, is similarly pessimistic about sustaining a mood of unity. Over the summer, local leaders in Marseille complained bitterly that a night-time curfew and mask regulations had been imposed from Paris without due consultation. Macron’s move to a new lockdown, believes Guilluy, is already creating new divisions, as those with sufficient means insulate themselves from the worst of what is to come. On Thursday evening, huge traffic jams built up as Parisians attempted to flee the capital and head for second homes before a 9pm curfew. “The Parisians who have fled to their second homes,” he says “are running the risk of infecting inhabitants of provincial and rural areas. They have been very badly received.

“Inequalities between classes and between regions have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The truth is, social and cultural tensions have rarely been so acute in France, but the political classes are attempting to mask them by appealing to a sense of republican unity.”

Political rivalries and ambitions that pre-date the pandemic are also complicating the response to the second wave. In Belgium – where overwhelmed hospitals in Liège have asked Covid-positive medical staff to keep working – concerted action was stymied by high-profile disputes between politicians from the Flemish-speaking north and the Francophone south. The country has now locked down until mid-December. But the minister-president of Flanders, Jan Jambon, had previously claimed tough action was necessary only in Wallonia. By the time of his U-turn last week, 600,000 Belgians were believed to be spreading the virus.

“From May through June and right up until recently, you have seen a growing polarisation of opinion in public debate,” says Dave Sinardet, a political scientist from Saint-Louis University in Brussels. “The virologists would push for tougher measures, but there was a growing lobby for keeping the economy more open. So in September, when the infection rate was rising sharply, there was still a reduced level of restrictions. There’s a lot of criticism of the people who were giving that advice.”

The obvious failure of the country’s track and trace system is contributing to a sense of disillusionment with the management of the crisis. “There is frustration and a feeling that businesses such as cafes and restaurants did a lot, and the government didn’t do enough,” says Sinardet.

It seems increasingly likely that Boris Johnson will next week add England to the list of European nations shutting down for a second time. According to Germany’s finance minister, Olaf Scholz: “November will be the month of truth”, in the battle against the second wave of Covid. But the indicators are that the struggle could go either way. The pace and intensity of the surge in infections has taken governments by surprise and left them looking unprepared. Public buy-in to a renewed lockdown, may need a step-change in the level of support and solidarity governments are prepared to offer. The financial cost will be enormous, but the price of inaction could be much higher.

In a column for La Stampa last week, the philosopher and former mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, wrote: “A social crisis has been added to the public health one… [the crisis] is creating differences in income and living conditions which are completely incompatible with what we mean by a ‘democracy’. Are we aware of this? Up to now, I don’t think so. But there isn’t a moment to lose.”

The stakes were dramatically high before the first lockdown in March. They may be even higher now.

Additional reporting by Angela Giuffrida

Read More

TRUMP TO CHALLENGE LIKELY DEFEAT IN SUPREME COURT

 Cyprus Mail 1 November 2020 - by Alper Ali Riza

Donald Trump Hates To Lose

IT LOOKS as though it is going to be curtains for President Donald Trump next week. Swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio have been badly affected by the coronavirus and are swinging away from Trump.

Millions of voters have already voted by post, which pollsters believe is bad news for Trump and that the election is now Joe Biden‘s to lose. That said, I would not write him off just yet. It was Hillary Clinton’s to lose in 2016 and she lost and he won in key swing States even though she won an overall majority of three million.

Trump won because of the way the Electoral College system works in the USA. What the Founding Fathers devised was a system directed at satisfying two contradictory aims: representative democracy based on the principle of majority rule, and political equality between states of the Union.

The US Congress comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate. Representatives are elected in proportion to the population of each state, which is democratic; and two senators are elected from each state, which promotes political equality between states with different populations.

Different powers are allocated to each with checks and balances between them and between Congress and the President, designed to preserve the Union. For example, to impeach a president the Representatives bring the case but the Senate decides at a trial presided over by the Chief Justice.

The executive arm of the US government is vested in the President but his election also satisfies the twin demands of representative democracy and political equality between states. The way this is done is through an Electoral College. Originally the idea was to have Congress elect the president but that was not in line with the separation of powers. On the other hand an executive directly elected by the people was too novel an idea and gives too much power to the most populous states. So a compromise was reached whereby the president is not elected directly by the people but by temporary electors from each state equal to the number of congressmen from each state – for example Florida has 29 electors, equal to the 27 Representatives and 2 Senators it sends to the US Congress.

These electors are actually just votes with no discretion to do other than reflect the result. Presidential candidates fight each state on a winner takes all basis and collect all the electoral votes in states they win. What then happens is that the votes from each state are totted up and the candidate that wins the magic number of 270 votes becomes president.

The important point, however, is that the president is chosen indirectly by the people of each state in accordance with the same formula that allocates the number of Representatives and Senators in Congress. He personifies both the People and the States of the Union that gives the office of the president huge political power.

Trump, however, does not play by the rules and anticipating defeat, he gave no assurances that he would accept the result if he is not successful. I don’t think he would dare stay in power after being defeated beyond expiry of his term as it is a constitutional red line no president can cross without a revolution.

The American constitution is sacrosanct. It is what made a country of immigrants a nation, and it has been the source of American exceptionalism. The ideas and underlying values of the American Constitution of 1787 are still exceptional. We have not moved much since the Enlightenment when the Constitution was promulgated, and its underlying values are still used by conservative Justices of the Supreme Court when interpreting and applying it to modern cases.

Conservative Justices of the Supreme Court, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Trump only last week, believe that the Constitution’s underlying values are timeless, and that the best guide to its interpretation is its original intent. They are now the majority and will develop the law on the basis that the only way of changing the American Constitution is by amendment rather than judicial exegesis.

But if Trump thinks that a conservative Supreme Court may somehow extend his stay in the White House, all I can say is that the original intent of the Founding Fathers was to limit the president’s term in office lest he arrogated to himself the powers of a king whom they had overthrown in America.

The American Constitution provides that a president cannot stay in office if he is not re-elected. His term ends at noon on January 20 at the end of a president’s fourth year in office. Unlike the position in the UK where the removal vans arrive in Downing Street the day following defeat, a defeated president stays in power during the hiatus between the election, usually in November, and inauguration of the new president on January 20. A president’s term ends by operation of law and cannot be extended – not even by the Supreme Court.

What Trump probably meant was that if defeated he would challenge the results in the law courts on the basis that the election was stolen from him by widespread fraud made possible by the prevalence of postal voting. There is precedent for this in the Supreme Court in the case of Bush v Gore in 2000. Al Gore the Democratic candidate lost by a narrow margin in Florida and sought a recount. In the end a conservative Supreme Court found against Gore and George W Bush was elected president.

Trump is highly litigious and hates losing. On a short visit to Britain when Theresa May was prime minister, he advised her to sue the EU over the terms on which Britain was to exit the EU. I thought of that advice when thinking whether and how Trump will challenge the result in key swing states.

It is possible that what he will do is declare himself winner on the votes cast on November 3 and sue to exclude postal votes on the grounds they are tainted by fraud. I doubt the Supreme Court would buy into such manipulation of its process but Trump has refused to confirm he would accept the result if he loses and this is the only way he could try and stay in power beyond January 20, 2021.

 

Alper Ali Riza is a Queen’s Counsel and a former part time judge in England

Read More

BEST HARVEST FOR YEARS BUT A GLUT OF CYPRUS WINE REMAINS UNSOLD

 Cyprus Mail 1 November 2020 - by Bejay Browne

This year’s grape harvest in Cyprus is one of the best in recent years, but that doesn’t mean winemakers are looking forward to a profitable vintage – the coronavirus pandemic means many wineries are still struggling to sell last year’s yield, with some even suffering a drop in sales of about half.

An unknown future lies ahead for one of the island’s oldest industries as most wineries are unsure of how or where they will sell this year’s product, and are unable to make any sort of plans for the future, they told the Sunday Mail.

The harvest across the varieties in Cyprus has been one of the best for years, agreed head oenologist at Sodap’s Kamaterena winery in Stroumpi Stephanos Stephanou.

Wine Production At Vasilikon

“The grapes are perfect, they show good maturity, nice aromas and structure, and no disease. It’s a good year for wine,” he said.

Tsangarides winery’s Angelos Tsangarides agreed: “It has been a very good year for grapes,” he said

Yiannis Kyriakides, of Vasilikon winery in Kathikas, said the same thing, the harvest has been a good one, and despite that fact that there is no indication of what the future will hold, the winery will make almost the same amount of wine as last year.

“It’s bad for all of us and we encourage people to buy Cyprus wines and not imported ones,” Kyriakides said.

Tsangarides lamented that although the harvest was good he is not sure what to do with the grapes. “Our main market is here in Cyprus. We sell around 80-90 per cent here and usually export to China and Singapore, but none of our overseas customers bought this year,” Tsangarides told the Sunday Mail.

The problem is that it’s impossible to plan anything, he added.

“If it was last year, I would be preparing for Christmas, but we have no idea what will happen tomorrow let alone March or April next year,” he said.

The Tsangarides winery is a boutique family-owned and run venture in Lemona, Paphos. The current owner and his family are proud of their heritage and want to carry it on. Their great, great grandfather prepared the land and planted the first vines.

The family continues to produce limited numbers of bottles to ensure consistently high quality.

Kamanterena Winery

And it is not just overseas sales that have plummeted. “There is just no tourism this year, it’s not just affecting me or the wine industry but everyone. We usually get millions of tourists a year but there have been hardly any and the population here is not even a million. Everyone is being affected,” he said.

Currently, the winery is bottling on an ‘ad hoc’ basis, as the need arises.

“It’s very difficult as the running costs of a winery are huge and many people are reliant on it as an income.”

Sodap too has main markets of hotels and restaurants, which were the first to be hit by the Covid 19 pandemic and remain so, Stepahonou said, adding that this has resulted in large quantities of unsold wine having to be stored at the winery, and they are now having difficulty finding the space.

“We have close to four million litres left from last year, it’s usually close to 2/3 million litres. We have had to exploit the situation and do what is necessary to try and free up space. We have repaired old tanks and filled them with wine and utilised every part of the winery we could,” Stephanou said.

As Sodap and the winery of Kamanterena is a co-operative, created by vine growers to trade their own grapes, Sodap has done everything possible to take the harvest this year and received four million kilos, the same amount as last year, he said.

“The future is uncertain all over the world and Covid 19 has created so many problems. We are looking for new and other markets, but the pandemic has made it difficult to export now. The situation is really difficult,” he said.

In March, local winemakers called on authorities to help them better promote their products, as it emerged that sales of imported wine outstrip exports by 10 to1.

Storage at Vasilikon Winery

MPs heard that in 2018 exports of Cypriot wines were just €2.5m, compared to imports worth €25.5m. Politicians called for better branding and market placement.

“I don’t think people really have a budget to advertise or anything, we (Tsangarides) have done some on social media, like everyone. We are around 40 to 50 per cent down on last year and are mostly selling at supermarkets this year. Usually our main market is restaurants and hotels,” Tsangarides said.

The winery bottles around 300,000 in a good year, and are unsure of exact numbers for this year, but they maybe only around half, he added.

Although grape growing and wine making have been part of the culture spanning generations in Cyprus, and there is evidence that wine making may have existed as many as 6,000 years ago, the industry has gone through many changes in recent years .

The sector is also a significant contributor to the economy through cultivation, production, employment, export and tourism.

Grape production in Cyprus has dropped by around 20-30 per cent this year in general, Tsangarides explained. He said that when the grapes are a better quality, production is generally less.

“The government’s green harvest scheme has also meant a reduction in numbers and a lot of grapes were picked in May,” he said.

Bottles Stacked Up At Tsangarides Winery

Under the EU’s wine support programme, wine-producing member states like Cyprus may currently offer financial support for a number of measures, including green harvesting, (the process of removing extra grape bunches from a vine when young), which will ensure there isn’t a surplus of grapes.

The programme offers compensation for growers that meet the criteria.

A vineyard must be registered in the Viticultural Register, be of a specific size and planted by 2015. Vineyards planted since 2016 and later are not eligible.

But winemakers only see the sector in Cyprus surviving if the effects of the pandemic start to improve. “If it remains like this for a few years,” Kyriakides warned, “it will be very difficult for the industry to keep going.”

 

Read More

DO YOU HAVE TO CLOSE YOUR UK BANK ACCOUNT?

 Cyprus Mail 1 November 2020 - by Andrew Rosenbaum

Bank Street in London -- Cyprus residents may be able to keep their bank accounts.

Anyone who has lived and worked in the UK will understand the advantages of having an account in Blighty.

You can pay your bills, your taxes, collect your investments – there’s always some business to be done which is much easier to settle if you have at least a checking account in a UK bank.

But with Brexit closing in, and quite possibly a no-deal Brexit, do you have to close your account there?

No, you do not have to close your account. This applies whether you are a Cypriot, a Brit, or of another nationality.

However, there is a strong chance that your UK bank will ask you to close it. It may also take back your credit cards, which is no joke given that foreigners don’t have access to them in Cyprus (banks here ask you to put up €2,000 and then give you a “credit card” with a credit line of –guess what? €2,000).

It also is possible to find another UK bank that will accept your business.

Why are UK banks closing your account?

Why are UK banks closing your account? Because most financial institutions in the UK will no longer have ‘passport’ access to the EU single market (and to the EEA countries). Before Brexit, UK banks could access any other banks in the 27 member states freely.

Current passporting rules are set to end on 31 December 2020 unless a new agreement is reached with the EU.

What that means is that, as things stand, from 1 January 2021, each UK bank will need to have separate licence in every EEA country it wants to operate in.

So if you live in a country that your bank likes to work in, you don’t have to worry. But many UK banks just don’t want to have you on the books in any case – with 1.4 million Brits living in the EU, the biggest banks including Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard apparently just can’t be bothered.

Unless you have a valid UK address on your account – and PO boxes or parcel receivers don’t count – your account is toast.

Other major UK banks have reportedly sent out letters saying that they are keeping a close eye on the situation and will let you know.

There have been a wave of complaints about this, as you might expect, with some banks closing accounts without informing the account holders, and others giving very short notice. Credit card issues are legion, as some banks oblige holders to pay off total outstanding debt when card accounts are closed.

There has been enough of a reaction that the UK Treasury has intervened. It has warned UK banks that they must give two-months’ notice before closing these accounts. Banks have also been told that they cannot close down accounts where the holder would be placed in “undue financial hardship.”

I can’t quite see myself pleading financial hardship at my high street branch, but you might fall upon a sympathetic manager (don’t count on it).

What you can do

Fortunately, there are less unlikely strategies that you can use to resolve this issue.

Is the address on your bank account currently in the UK? The simplest strategy is to keep that address on the account. The bank need never know that you are abroad.

Do not, however, try to change your address to that of your old aunt who lives in Milton Keynes or anyone like that – this could be used to show that you are no longer resident abroad, and that won’t look good on your tax return.

Another strategy is to switch to a UK bank that has no issues with people living abroad. ING has been one such bank in the past, but check first to see if it has changed its policy. There are a number of others, and there is no legal obstacle to your picking one that offers terms you like.

HSBC, for example, has confirmed you can open an online account from any EU member state. Currently, HSBC reportedly has no plans to close expat accounts. Again, it’s wise to check first about expat policies before you open an online account.

Another alternative is to find a bank in Cyprus which has a branch in London. You may be able to arrange a multicurrency account with a UK IBAN as well as a Cyprus one.

There are also a number of fintech account providers that can provide you with both. You should ensure that they have EU bank licences. There are several here in Cyprus.

One such provider is Payoneer, an alternative banking services provider that has been around for nearly 20 years. If you are paid a salary, or a fee or investment dividends in the UK, Payoneer could work for you. It will take payments for you from any proper business account, just about anywhere in the world. But you can’t pay yourself anything on Payoneer, nor can a friend or relative send you money from a personal account.

 

Read More

TURKEY QUAKE TOLL RISES TO 49, MORE THAN 800 AFTERSHOCKS, MAJOR DESTRUCTION

 in-cyprus 1 November 2020 - by Constantinos Tsintas

The death toll in Izmir from a seven magnitude quake that hit the Turkish coastal city on Friday rose to 49, as crews are still searching for dozens trapped under the rubble of apartment buildings, more than two days after the jolt.

900 people have been injured. At least 15 are in critical condition.

Eight hundred and twelve aftershocks have been recorded.

Turkish President Tayip Erdogan visited the affected last night, saying that rescue efforts will continue and assuring that all homes will be rebuilt and compensation given.

Three thousand tents have been have been set up to house the homeless, while schools will remain closed in Izmir this week.

Erdogan noted that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was among the leaders who called to express support and offer assistance.

Read More