Category: Cyprus News Agency

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) All Share Index closed at today`s stock exchange meeting as follows:

MEETING DATE: 13/01/2026

INDICES BASE VALUES: FTSEMed=5000, OTHERS = 1000

EURO (pound )

TRADED VALUE 280,116.88

INDEX

VALUE

%DIFF.

VALUE

FTSE/CySE 20

173.400

0.630

238,370.970

MAIN MARKET INDEX

228.720

-0.010

109,136.900

INVESTMENT COMPANIES MARKET INDEX

3,067.280

0.330

18,778.530

CSE GENERAL INDEX

286.100

0.340

242,692.440

HOTELS INDEX

2,063.590

-1.020

1,266.890

ALTERNATIVE MARKET INDEX

1,959.750

1.300

134,776.940

* The second column presents the percentage variation of the indices as compared to the last meeting.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cyprus and Head of the United Nations peacekeeping force on the island (UNFICYP), Khassim Diagne, will brief on Tuesday, behind closed doors, the representatives of the countries contributing troops to UNFICYP.

On 15 January, he is scheduled to brief the members of the UN Security Council in closed consultations on the situation in Cyprus.

On 29 January, the Security Council will vote on the renewal of UNFICYP’s mandate for a further year.

The United Kingdom, which also serves as the penholder of the relevant resolution, while as one of the three guarantor powers, Greece, which was elected on 6 June 2024 as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2025-2026, is a key stakeholder with regard to UNFICYP and has played a decisive role last year through its interventions during drafting the resolution.

Since the collapse of the talks at Crans-Montana in 2017, the central issue for the Security Council has remained the absence of substantive progress toward the resumption of a formal political process. Cyprus President, Nikos Christodoulides, and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had a meeting on 11 December 2025, facilitated by the UNSG’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín, after which the UN said that the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to participate in the next informal meeting in a broader format to be convened by the UN Secretary-General and to continue to work in Cyprus to produce tangible results for the benefit of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and to ensure the success of the next informal meeting in a broader format.

During the closed consultations, the Security Council is expected to consider how the new resolution could be used to encourage the two sides to build on recent contacts and to avoid actions that could undermine the political climate, including activities that heighten tensions in the buffer zone.

According to information, the Security Council may also consider inviting Holguín to brief members, in the context of the consultations, on her assessment of whether the conditions are being shaped for a meeting in an expanded format.

In addition, Council members may examine the potential operational implications of the proposed budgetary and staffing adjustments under the UN80 initiative for the Office of the Special Adviser on Cyprus, as well as the possible impact of the broader UN liquidity crisis on UNFICYP and on the Secretary-General’s Good Offices in Cyprus.

The Secretariat has stated that the Office will continue to perform its core political role through a streamlined structure; nevertheless, some members appear likely to seek greater clarity on how fiscal and structural constraints could affect political engagement, support for confidence-building measures, and the implementation of UNFICYP’s mandate ahead of its renewal.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.

In 2025 the Secretary-General hosted two informal meetings on Cyprus, in March in Geneva and in July in New York, while a tripartite meeting with the Cyprus leaders was also held in late September, at the end of the UN General Assembly High Level Week.

María Angela Holguín, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties, while former European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, designated by the Commission as Special Envoy for Cyprus, is also expected to contribute to the settlement process, in cooperation with Holguín.

Since yesterday, Member States must monitor, in a harmonised way, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in drinking water to comply with the new EU limit values under the recast Drinking Water Directive. They also have to inform the Commission of these monitoring results, including data on exceedances of the limit values, incidents and any granted derogations.

This measure contributes directly to a key objective of the Water Resilience Strategy – the right to safe drinking water. It also responds to the strategy’s call for urgent action to tackle pollutants that threaten Europe’s drinking water sources.

The recast Drinking Water Directive was adopted in 2020, and Member States were required to transpose the directive into national law by January 2023. To support consistent monitoring across the EU, the Commission issued technical guidelines in 2024.

This is the first time systematic monitoring of PFAS in drinking water is being implemented in the EU. If the limit values are exceeded, Member States must take action to reduce the level of PFAS to protect public health and inform the public. These measures may include closing contaminated wells, adding treatment steps to remove PFAS, or restricting the use of drinking water supplies for as long as the exceedance continues.

Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall, said: ‘PFAS pollution is a growing concern for drinking water across Europe. With harmonised limits and mandatory monitoring now in force, Member States have the rules and tools to swiftly detect and address PFAS to protect public health.’

You can find more information on the new rules entering into application online.

(For more information: Eva Hrncírová – Tel.: +32 2 298 84 33; Maëlys Dreux – Tel.: +32 2 295 46 73)

Executive Vice-President Séjourné convenes the first General Assembly of the Critical Chemicals Alliance

Today, Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné convenes the first General Assembly of the Critical Chemicals Alliance at Chemelot Chemical Park in the Netherlands. The General Assembly brings together high-level members of the Alliance from industry, Member States, regional authorities, and civil society. It marks the formal launch of this key initiative under the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan, adopted on 8 July 2025. The plan provides a strategic framework to modernise and strengthen the competitiveness of Europe’s chemicals sector, a cornerstone of the EU economy.

Today’s General Assembly serves as a forum for structured, ongoing dialogue, ensuring close coordination to maintain critical production, address capacity risks, and drive investments in decarbonisation and innovation. The Alliance aims to address global trade challenges, including unfair competition and supply chain dependencies, while promoting incentives to develop lead markets for clean chemical products. By uniting stakeholders around shared priorities, the Alliance will safeguard Europe’s chemicals industry as the ‘industry of industries.’

Membership is open to organisations with relevant activities in the chemical industry, including Member States, regional authorities, companies, associations, investors, academia, and civil society groups who are willing to contribute to this collective effort to secure Europe’s chemical production and accelerate the transition to a greener, more resilient industry.

Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Marinos Moushouttas has expressed the determination of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU to work for the successful completion of the initiatives that are currently on the table.

Moushouttas, who paid a working visit to Brussels on Monday, expressed to the rapporteurs of the European Parliament the commitment of the Cyprus EU Presidency to exercise its role as an honest and impartial mediator between the member states and the EU institutions, promoting balanced and sustainable compromises.

‘The Cyprus Presidency remains committed to strengthening the social pillar of the EU, placing particular emphasis on the protection of workers, quality jobs and the adaptation of the labor market to new economic and technological challenges,’ he pointed out, according to a press release by the Ministry.

The Minister underlined that the creation of quality jobs and the promotion of fair employment and fair worker mobility are building blocks of European social policy and contribute to strengthening social justice, cohesion and inclusive sustainable development.

During the visit, the Minister had a series of meetings with rapporteurs of the European Parliament on the legislative dossiers under negotiation, as well as with Director-General of the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs of the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU, David Brozina.

The Swiss Football Association has selected Cyprus for the winter training camp of its referees, marking the first change of destination in 35 years, a move that further strengthens the island’s profile as a sports tourism hub, Deputy Minister of Tourism Costas Koumis said.

Around 100 Swiss referees, including UEFA Elite category officials who officiate top competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, are currently training in Cyprus, a Deputy Ministry of Tourism press release said.

The visit is supported through the Deputy Ministry of Tourism’s incentive scheme aimed at attracting foreign sports teams and federations during the winter months.

First Lady Philippa Karsera Christodoulides announced on Sunday her decision to step down from the management committee of the Independent Social Support Agency.

In a written statement on her social media account on Facebook, she says that in the last 24 hours, her children and herself have been watching “a merciless attack on social media with the spread of fake news, defamatory comments, allegations of wrongdoing from personal accounts, both well known and anonymous”.

Her announcement comes after a video surfaced last week with allegations for illegal financing of the President’s presidential campaign in 2023 and for controversial investments on the island.

The First Lady notes that the Management Committee of the Independent Social Support Agency will convene in an extraordinary session, on Monday, during which she will inform them about her decision to step down.

‘Not because I do not want to continue helping children- that was my only motivation from the outset- but because I will not allow anyone to continue to defame my ethics and integrity, my husband’s and my family’s, using as a pretext the operation of the Independent Social Support Agency from which no member of the Management Committee has the slightest personal gain,’ she writes.

She explains that the Independent Social Support Agency is a special state fund with an account at the Central Bank, and has been operating since 2015 by law. The grants are made by deposit through a bank, there is no cash, there is no way to access the account, or abuse it, she notes.

“There is absolute transparency and accountability. In no audit by the Auditor General of the Republic or private auditors appointed on his behalf, was the slightest irregularity or illegality detected. There is no way for money to leak, there are no financial transactions, all the money that is in the special account is used as scholarships for children who are studying,” she stresses.

A recent scientific review highlights how climate change is creating compounded challenges for livestock systems in the Mediterranean.

The study, by Panagiotis Karanis, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Nicosia’s (UNIC) Medical School, in collaboration with researchers from Greece and Turkey, shows that climatic pressures are simultaneously increasing livestock’s physiological stress while accelerating the spread of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

A press release by UNIC says that published in the peer-reviewed journal Entomologia Generalis, the review synthesises current knowledge on the interconnected effects of climate change on tick ecology and livestock sustainability within the Mediterranean basin, a region particularly vulnerable to environmental and epidemiological shifts.

Commenting on the study, Professor Panagiotis Karanis notes that the paper shows that rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events are reducing water availability and forage quality while increasing heat stress in livestock.

“These pressures undermine productivity, reproduction, and animal welfare. At the same time, warmer conditions are extending the seasonal activity of ticks, speeding up their life cycles, and enabling them to expand into new regions, thereby amplifying disease transmission and economic losses for farmers,” he adds.

To address these growing risks, the press release says, researchers call for a move away from reactive, chemical-heavy disease control toward integrated, climate-adaptive strategies.

Recommended solutions include early warning surveillance, improved pasture management, targeted vector control, and adoption of climate-resilient livestock husbandry practices.

UNIC study warns climate change fuels tick-borne threats to Mediterranean livestock

A recent scientific review by Panagiotis Karanis, Professor of Anatomy at the UNIC Medical School, in collaboration with researchers from Greece and Turkey, highlights how climate change is creating compounded challenges for livestock systems in the Mediterranean.

The study shows that climatic pressures are simultaneously increasing livestock’s physiological stress while accelerating the spread of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Entomologia Generalis, the review synthesises current knowledge on the interconnected effects of climate change on tick ecology and livestock sustainability within the Mediterranean basin, a region particularly vulnerable to environmental and epidemiological shifts.

Commenting on the study, Professor Panagiotis Karanis said: ‘Our paper shows that rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events are reducing water availability and forage quality while increasing heat stress in livestock. These pressures undermine productivity, reproduction, and animal welfare. At the same time, warmer conditions are extending the seasonal activity of ticks, speeding up their life cycles, and enabling them to expand into new regions, thereby amplifying disease transmission and economic losses for farmers.’

To address these growing risks, the researchers call for a move away from reactive, chemical-heavy disease control toward integrated, climate-adaptive strategies. Recommended solutions include early warning surveillance, improved pasture management, targeted vector control, and adoption of climate-resilient livestock husbandry practices.

Rain and isolated thunderstorms, combined with snowfall in the mountains are expected on Monday, according to a yellow warning issued by the Cyprus Meteorology Department.

The warning, which has been in effect since Sunday evening and will last until 2100 local time, says that a combination of rain and isolated thunderstorms mainly over coastal areas are expected to affect the island at times.

In the areas of thunderstorms, hail is expected while snowfall is also expected over the high mountain regions which locally at times is likely to be heavy, it adds.

Precipitation rate is expected to range between 35 and 55 millimeters per hour, while total precipitation is likely to locally exceed the amount of 55 millimeters per 24 hours, mainly over the coastal and the mountainous areas, the warning concludes.

School of Law, European University Cyprus: International Participation in Corporate Law Conference at the University of Vienna

The School of Law of European University Cyprus continues to strengthen its international academic profile and contribution to contemporary legal scholarship through active participation in high-level global conferences.

On December 2025, Dr Antigoni Alexandropoulou, Associate Dean of the School of Law and Associate Professor of Corporate Law, participated in an international conference held at the University of Vienna, entitled:

‘Boards Inc. – Legal Persons as Directors and Officers’

Dr Alexandropoulou presented a scholarly paper titled ‘Legal Persons as Directors and Officers in Cyprus’, offering an in-depth examination of the Cypriot legal framework and contributing to the international academic dialogue on the role of legal persons in corporate management and governance.

The conference was organised by the Center for Comparative Corporate Finance Law, in collaboration with Chris Thomale, and brought together distinguished academics and legal practitioners from Europe, the United States, and Australia.

This participation highlights the School of Law of European University Cyprus as an active contributor to international legal research and discourse, reaffirming its commitment to academic excellence, research impact, and global engagement in the field of Corporate and Comparative Law.