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Crisis In Cyprus
- Thread starter LiuKang
- Start date
Cyprus inches towards deal as deadline looms
Date March 24, 2013
Charlie Charalambous
AFP Telegraph, London
Parliament votes: three of the eight bailout measures have been approved. Photo: Bloomberg
The Cypriot parliament has finally approved the first three of eight measures hammered out by the government in a desperate attempt to rescue a European Union bailout before the Monday deadline.
But with the clock ticking down to a crunch Sunday meeting with eurozone finance ministers, more contentious issues remained to be debated, including a tax of up to 15 per cent on bank deposits of €100,000 ($124,000) or more.
MPs rejected the levy in slightly different form on Tuesday. Three days later, the deputies voted in favour of a national solidarity fund to be set up through the nationalisation of public and private sector pensions.
Outrage: Cypriots protest outside parliament in Nicosia. Photo: AFP
They also approved capital controls to prevent a run on the island's banks when they are finally due to open on Tuesday after a more than week-long closure.
They also passed a restructuring plan drawn up by the central bank that will separate banks good debts from bad particularly in the second largest lender Popular Bank, or Laiki in Greek. The bill, the most contentious of the three approved late on Friday, passed by 26 votes to two, with 25 abstentions.
Acting leader of the ruling Disy party Averof Neophytou had appealed to MPs to back the legislation, saying it would guarantee all deposits of up to €100,000, although those with balances of more might have to wait years to get all their money back.
Hopes of a deal in Moscow were dashed on Friday when Finance Minister Michael Sarris flew back to Nicosia after failing to renegotiate a loan from the Russian government.
The Cypriot government has described the negotiations with the eurozone and International Monetary Fund over the fate of Cyprus as ''hard … bearing in mind the social misery that a possible rejection of the proposal would cause''.
A spokesman for President Nicos Anastasiades said: ''We will be called upon to take the big decisions and reply to the hard dilemmas. The next few hours will determine the future of this country. We must all assume our responsibility. Any solution involves pain.''
MPs adjourned shortly before midnight without setting a time for resuming their debate on the rest of the government's last-ditch package aimed at raising €5.8 billion to unlock loans worth €10 billion.
The government needs to seal the package by Monday or face being denied European Central Bank emergency funds in a move that would collapse the island's banks and devour its economy.
The late evening emergency session came after restive crowds, mostly bank employees anxious that their employers not be sacrificed in the deal, demonstrated outside parliament through the day.
EU sources said the bloc was ready to eject Cyprus from the eurozone to prevent contagion of other debt-hit members such as Greece, Spain and Italy.
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