As Justice Minister Stefi Drakou informed the Committee today, in the Commercial Court Bill there will be wording with legal clarity that banking and financial matters are not included in the cases the court will hear. These matters were included in the first Bill, as she explained, but the commercial court itself requested that they be excluded because it would create a delay in the administration of justice in serious commercial cases and were removed. With the change, he said, the issue of the exemption is clarified.
The Minister also said that a very good knowledge of both Greek and English would be added to the qualifications of judges,[/B] as long as there is a political will to have English in these courts. He added that the English language will not only cover the two courts in the first instance, but will apply until a decision is finalized.
The Chairman of the Committee, DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis said that the Committee has reached specific final decisions regarding the two courts and are awaiting the revised text from the Ministry of Justice in order to proceed to its vote.
AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides noted that he expects two positions to be included in the bills, the main one being the exclusion of financial disputes from the scope of the law, so that banks do not take advantage of the new shorter procedure, which lacks the safeguards of the provincial courts, thus affecting the rights of borrowers.
EDEK MP Kostis Efstathiou, said that the Greek language should be protected, stating that the Greek language is endangered through the amendment of the constitution attempted by the government to operate the commercial court. He said he strongly objected since a citizen cannot be tried in a language foreign to his own language. He described such a thing as unacceptable stating that if the English Governor Storrs who wanted to abolish the Greek language in Cyprus in the 1930s was alive, he would have been very happy.
Source: CNA
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