The Plenum of the Parliament voted on laws the Budgets of the Turkish Cypriot Property Fund and the PEP for 2023 and two draft laws granting a right of inheritance to self-housing houses, to descendants of refugees who passed away before 2006. During the debate preceding the vote, all the MPs who took the floor stressed the need to establish criteria for the granting and ownership of Turkish Cypriot properties.
The budget of the Turkish Cypriot Property Fund was passed with 29 votes in favour and 13 abstentions out of 42 MPs present. Two amendments tabled by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees Nikos Kettiros were voted against by the Plenary.
The Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees to the Plenary notes that the budget is not balanced and shows a deficit of €766.056, which is expected to be covered by the accumulated reserve of the Turkish Cypriot Property Management Fund, which until 31 December 2021 amounted to €3,675,797.
The budget foresees expenditure of €16,655,852 and income of €15,889,796, which comes from a state grant to the Custodian of Turkish Cypriot Properties (€7,000,000), Turkish Cypriot Properties lease rentals (€4,919.040) and from the execution of various works by the hourly staff of the technical workshops against a corresponding and equal expenditure in the expenditure budget, which is made for accounting purposes (€3,908,046).
Before the vote from the floor of the Plenary, Mr. Kettereros expressed regret that, as he said, no improvement had been found in the management of T/C properties and mismanagement scandals continued to develop, adding that investigations were underway.
Mr. Kettiros expressed the view that the mismanagement starts with the Interior Minister, adding that couples ask for Turkish Cypriot houses as their first residence and instead of being given to beneficiaries to reside they are granted as holiday homes by grace. He added that measurable criteria should be set for the granting of T/Cs.
DISY Parliamentary Spokesman Nikos Tornaritis observed that during the discussion of this budget the same things are repeated every year. He suggested that everyone in Parliament should agree that regardless of who is elected to the Presidency of the Republic, an audit should be carried out on every T/C property and where the criteria are not met, they should be recovered. He also said that the state should also approve the right to transfer the building factor of the owners of Turkish-occupied properties. DISY MP Kyriakos Hatzigiannis further said that with the resumption of the work of the Parliament after the presidential elections, he will raise the issue of the concession of T/C houses to Ethiopians and T/Cs.
DIKO MP Christos Seneces observed that another budget is approved while awaiting the submission of criteria for the concession and occupation of T/C properties, thus perpetuating the shadows.
EPP President Marinos Sizopoulos said that after 48 years the issue needs to be regulated, as there are property managers who are not legal, there are owners of huge tracts of land, and a large number of houses that are unsuitable. He expressed the view that there is indifference and procrastination as a result of the absence of a programme.
CIP Budget
The CIP Budget for 2023 was passed unanimously with 38 MPs present.
As stated in the report of the Refugee Committee to the Plenary, the budget is balanced and provides for expenditure of €332,115 and income of the same amount. In particular, the income comes from the annual state grant of €283,328 and from pension contributions of €44,782 and widows' and orphans' pensions of €4,005.
During the discussion of the budget in the Refugee Committee, the President of the PEP expressed his satisfaction with the support provided by the State to the PEP and also pointed out the need to reinforce the PEP with new staff. On the other hand, representatives of the Ministry of Finance said that the state, and in particular the Ministry of Finance, supports the effort made by the CIP to solve any problems faced by the refugee world.
Law proposals
The two law proposals tabled by the AKEL Parliamentary Group were unanimously voted into law by the 36 MPs present.
The first law amended the Real Property (Possession, Registration and Valuation) Law to provide for the possibility of registering a lease agreement of Turkish Cypriot immovable property between the Custodian as lessor and a displaced person as lessee for the purpose of housing or self-housing and for the said immovable property to be the subject of succession, regardless of the time the lessee has passed away.
The second law amended the Turkish Cypriot Property (Management and Other Matters) (Temporary Provisions) Law so that a lease of a residential unit on Turkish Cypriot property granted to a displaced or deceased person or a Turkish Cypriot who died before 7 April 2006 and who occupied the residential unit at the date of his death becomes part of his estate and subject to succession.
During the debate preceding the vote, the Chairman of the Refugee Committee said that the two laws removed part of the injustice that had arisen in 2006 regarding the inheritance of housing units of displaced persons and victims, clarifying that the regulation applied to self-housing settlements and clarified that the law did not include housing units in government settlements that were recovered by the State and granted to other beneficiaries.
DISY MP Kyriakos Hatzigiannis expressed reservations about the possibility of creating discrimination problems, DIKO MP Pavlos Mylonas questioned whether financial criteria should be set, EDEK President Marinos Sizopoulos expressed reservations about the constitutionality of the law and EDEK MP Kostis Efstathiou, after stating that the approach of not victimizing refugees is correct, said that the issue of T/C properties and the plethora of criteria and legislation should be seriously examined.
Source: KYPE
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