Press Releases

The Second Addendum to the Second Compliance Report of Cyprus to the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), adopted on 27 November 2023 and published on Tuesday, 9 January 2024, assesses the additional measures taken by the Cypriot authorities to implement the outstanding recommendations issued in the Fourth Evaluation Round of Cyprus to GRECO, which deals with the "Prevention of corruption in relation to Members of Parliament, the Judiciary and Prosecution."

In the Evaluation Report, GRECO addressed sixteen (16) recommendations to Cyprus. In the Addendum to the Second Compliance Report, GRECO concluded that Cyprus has implemented satisfactorily or dealt with in a satisfactory manner nine (9) of them, while the six (6) have been implemented partially and one not implemented. Compliance with the remaining seven (7) recommendations is examined in the context of this Report, which effectively terminates the Round in question with the Recommendations been considered as partially implemented.

As for Prosecution, a field that concerns the Law Office of the Republic, the pending recommendation, which concerns the reform of the Law Office and the independence of prosecutorial functions, is implemented through the pertinent Bill relating to the Independence of the Law Office of the Republic, with which the autonomy of prosecutors is also covered, is upgraded from not implemented to partially implemented after the assessment by GRECO, for reasons of compliance, of the draft bill which is pending before Parliament.

In the Conclusions of the Report GRECO welcomes the draft Law, which is currently still before Parliament. It, however, notes that the draft would benefit from additional refinement to ensure that individual law officers/prosecutors are able to conduct their duties in a more autonomous way, guided by the safeguards necessary under the rule of law. GRECO calls on the authorities to deal with the planned reform of the Law Office of the Republic without delay.

The said GRECO Report, in English and Greek, is uploaded on the website of the Law Office of the Republic and on the GRECO website.

(GS/AP)