Category: Cyprus News Agency

Renowned Cyprus Professor Kypros Nikolaides, basen in the UK, was elected an external member, in the Medical Sciences section, of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts.

The selection took place during during the 66th plenary session of the Academy on September 17, following a proposal by the Order of Positive Sciences.

A press release says that Professor Nikolaides is internationally recognized as a leader in fetal medicine and prenatal surgery and his numerous contributions include the establishment of methods for detecting structural and chromosomal abnormalities, as well as effective intrauterine therapeutic interventions, namely fetal blood transfusions and endoscopic laser separation of communicating placental vessels in monochorionic twins.

Professor Nikolaides is internationally recognized as the founder of the measurement of nuchal translucency, the diagnostic technique that contributes to the early detection of genetic mutations associated with Down syndrome, while he is a pioneer in the research and applications of Cell Free DNA testing for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in a woman’s peripheral blood, the press release reads.

He is a Professor of Fetal Medicine, Director of the Harris Birthright Research Centre for Fetal Medicine, King’s College Hospital and Founder/Director of the Fetal Medicine Foundation.

His numerous awards include the Excellence in Sciences, Letters and Arts of the Republic of Cyprus, the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic, the Ian Donald Gold Medal, the Eardley Holland Gold Medal, the European Maternity Prize, the Erich Sailing Prize, as well as Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Cyprus, Athens, Thessaloniki, Cairo, Warsaw, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, among others. He has been elected as a member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings by sending a letter of formal notice to Cyprus, along with Bulgaria, Denmark, and France, for failing to correctly transpose the provisions of the Firearms Directive (Directive (EU) 2021/555).

The Directive establishes common minimum standards for the acquisition, possession, and commercial exchange of civilian firearms, such as those used for sport shooting and hunting. According to the Commission, the Directive maintains high security standards and protection against criminal acts and illicit trafficking of firearms.

Following the issuance of the formal notices, the member states now have a two-month deadline to respond and address the shortcomings identified by the Commission. If their responses are deemed unsatisfactory, the Commission may proceed with issuing a reasoned opinion, the next step in the infringement process.

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

MEETING DATE: 08/10/2025

INDICES BASE VALUES: FTSEMed=5000, OTH

The current account balance and the international investment position (IIP) of Cyprus recorded an improvement, while its gross external debt decreased in the second quarter of 2025 (Q2 2025), according to provisional data for external statistics for Q2 2025, released by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Cyprus on Wednesday.

In particular, the current account balance of Cyprus recorded an improvement, with the deficit decreasing from pound 341.7 million in Q2 2024, to pound 257.3 million, in Q2 2025.

The resulting deficit adjusted for the impact of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs), that is, classifying SPEs as non-residents, stood at pound 280.9 million in Q2 2025, compared with a deficit of pound 363.6 million in Q2 2024.

The international investment position (IIP) recorded an improvement in Q2 2025, presenting a net liability position of pound 30,094.9 million, compared with a net liability position of pound 30,420.9 million in Q1 2025.

With the corresponding data being adjusted for the impact of SPEs, IIP recorded a net liability position of pound 11,480.9 million in Q2 2025, compared with a net liability position of pound 11,871.7 million, in Q1 2025.

The gross external debt decreased to pound 232,988.2 million in Q2 2025 from pound 233,599.8 million in Q1 2025. The external assets in debt instruments decreased to pound 223,083.6 million, from pound 223,482.2 million in Q1 2025. Consequently, the net external debt decreased by pound 213.0 million to pound 9,904.6 million in Q2 2025.

Adjusted for the impact of SPEs, gross external debt reached pound 59,044.1 million in Q2 2025, compared to pound 59,569.7 million, in Q1 2025. The corresponding net external debt indicator decreased to -pound 24,313.4 million in Q2 2025, compared with -pound 23,924.4 million in Q1 2025.

Both the Prime Minister of Greece and the President of the Republic of Cyprus have expressed their positions on the issue, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said on Wednesday, in relation to the European Commission’s response to a question by the Cyprus News Agency on the Cyprus-Greece electricity interconnection project, known as GSI.

In statements after a meeting with the General Secretariat of SEK trade union on the tax reform, and, asked by a journalist to comment on the position expressed by the European Commission through a spokesperson to a question by CNA on the implementation of the Cyprus-Greece electricity interconnection (GSI), the Minister said: ‘All I can say is that very recently, at the highest level, both the Prime Minister of Greece and the President of the Republic have expressed their positions on the issue called GSI.’

He noted that he had nothing to add.

Earlier, the European Commission, through a spokesperson’s response to the Cyprus News Agency, expressed its expectation for all parties to commit to the rapid implementation of the GSI, following recent developments and statements from Nicosia and Athens. The Commission emphasised that any additional delay harms all sides involved.

In its response to CNA, the Commission notes that ‘we expect all Parties to commit to an as rapid implementation of the project as possible. Ultimately, any further delay is to the detriment of the parties involved.’

Department of Meteorology

Today’s weather and temperatures for Cyprus according to the Department of Meteorology

Date 08/10/2025

Cyprus is among the European Union countries where employees work the longest hours, according to the latest Eurostat data for the second quarter of 2025. Specifically, 16.6% of employees aged 20-64 worked more than 45 hours per week. This percentage places Cyprus among the highest in the EU, where the average stands at just 10.8%.

At the European level, Cyprus follows only Greece (20.9%) and precedes Malta (14.6%), while the lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria (2.5%), Latvia (4.1%), and Romania (5.9%). These figures highlight the differences in working conditions among member states, with Cyprus standing out for its long working hours.

Meanwhile, 72.3% of employees in the EU work between 20 and 44 hours per week, while part-time employment (up to 19 hours) is more widespread in countries such as the Netherlands (26.8%) and Denmark (25.5%).

The data are based on the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and cover the total number of working hours, including overtime, in both primary and potential secondary employment.

MED9 Ministers of Agriculture signed a Joint Declaration on Building Agricultural Resilience in the Mediterranean region during a meeting they had in Slovenia.

The Ministers of Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain reaffirmed their strong commitment to stepping up joint efforts to create a resilient, sustainable, and climate-adapted agricultural sector in the Mediterranean region, fully aligned with the European Green Deal, the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy, and the objectives of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The Ministers recognized that the Mediterranean region, is one of world’s climate change hotspot, that faces increasing agricultural vulnerability due to climate-related and other risks. They also agreed on agriculture’s pivotal role in food security, food sovereignty, water resource management, biodiversity protection.

The Ministers in their declaration also recognized that existing European and national systems and policies remain insufficiently prepared to cope with these realities and noted the need for immediate, coordinated, and forward-looking responses across all levels of governance, integrating climate resilience into every policy field.

Moreover they stressed the need to promote a resilience-by-design approach, embedding adaptation into all relevant EU policies, including the CAP.

Cyprus Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Maria Panagiotou in press statements noted that the MED9 meeting took a decisive step for coordinated action, pointing out that our region stands at the frontline of climate change that directly impact the daily lives of our farmers, our water resources, and our food security.

She said that farmers are already operating at the edge of their viability, and it would be unfair to expect them to bear alone the financial burden of climate change or compete on an unequal footing.

“That’s why we are here for our farmers, we are here for making sure that .our farmers will have the support they need in order to continue to produce under pressing circumstances. Our Joint Declaration sends a clear message on how imperative is to have a strategic and long-term approach to risk management in agriculture,” she stressed.

She also assured that Cyprus stands firmly with its MED9 partners in calling for urgent, coordinated, and forward-looking action, not only to protect farmers today, but to secure a sustainable and resilient future for Mediterranean agriculture.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) Demetris Skourides and its Director General Theodoros Loukaidis held meetings with ‘prominent figures’ in the international field of Research and Innovation, within the framework of the Science and Technology in Society Forum 2025, which took place between 5-6 October in Kyoto, Japan, according to an RIF press release.

Among other things, it said, they exchanged views with Marcia McNutt, President of the American Academy of Sciences, on the need to redesign research evaluation systems.

They also exchanged views with Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council, on the new EU framework programme, the budget for cutting-edge research and support actions for young scientists, as well as with Alexandra van Huffelen, President of the Executive Board of Radboud University in the Netherlands, on collaborations in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence and neuroscience.

The representatives of RIF, it notes, also participated in the high-level meeting of the Research and Innovation Funding Agencies, ‘where the development of human resources with specialisation in artificial intelligence and the role of organisations in enhancing talent were discussed extensively.’

During the roundtable discussion, they exchanged good practices with Tsuyoshi Sugino, President of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Dr. Wiparat De-ong, Executive Director of the National Research Council of Thailand, Professor Alejandro Adem, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Dr. Georg B. Schutte, Senior Executive Director of the Volkswagen Foundation, and Andre Kudelski, President of Innosuisse.

They also had brief meetings with Professor Mari Sundli Tveit, Senior Executive Director of the Research Council of Norway, Lars Hultman, Senior Executive Director of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Fulifhelo Nelwamondo, Senior Executive Director of NRF South Africa, and Professor Tuula Linna, President of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

It is noted that Skourides also held brief meetings with Edward Screven, Member of the Board of Directors of Ampere Computer Holdings, Dr. Harrick Vin, Chief Technology Officer at Tata Consultancy Services, Dr. Aswani Kumar, Senior Counsel of the Supreme Court of India, Dr. Michael Stampfer, CEO of the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s Chief Science Advisor and Dr. John Roche, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

The RIF representatives also attended lectures and participated in discussions on academia-business cooperation, retraining in the era of Artificial Intelligence, the application of artificial intelligence solutions in the public sector and green energy, the announcement concludes.

More than one thousand participants from thirty-five countries, including heads of state, ?inisters, regulators, shipowners and senior industry figures, participated in the first day of the deliberations of the Maritime Cyprus 2025 Conference that opened on Monday in the coastal town of Limassol.

Having as its main theme ‘Unlocking the Future of Shipping’, the conference is organised by the Shipping Deputy Ministry, the Cyprus Union of Shipowners and the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, the CSC says in a press release on Tuesday.

It adds that a special ministerial panel, ‘Ministers at the Helm of Maritime Transformation,’ expanded the day’s discussions to a regional level. The panel brought together Dr. Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Vasilis Kikilias, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy of Greece, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, Minister of Transport of the State of Qatar and Marina Hadjimanolis, Shipping Deputy Minister to the President of the Republic of Cyprus.

The discussion focused on policy coordination, investment in human capital, and innovation as essential drivers of maritime transformation.

The Ministers, it adds, called for stronger regional cooperation on safety, efficiency, and digitalization, agreeing that global challenges such as decarbonization and seafarer shortages can only be addressed through collective action.

The first industry panel of the day, ‘Navigating Disruption: Steering the Shipping Industry Through Global Turbulences,’ examined how shipowners and policymakers are responding to shifting market, regulatory, and geopolitical pressures. The final discussion of the day, ‘Navigating Changes: Shipowners’ Insights on Industry Evolution,’ brought together leading shipowners from Greece and Cyprus for a candid exchange on the future of shipping.

Adding a national policy perspective, George Papanastasiou, Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of Cyprus, addressed the panel to draw parallels between maritime and energy policy. According to the press release, he noted that Europe’s Green Deal, while well-intentioned, has at times advanced faster than technological capability, impacting competitiveness across industries. Moreover, he argued that Europe must retain all available energy options, including oil, gas, renewables, nuclear, and coal, to ensure affordability and energy security.

‘Energy and competitiveness go hand in hand,’ he said, warning that transitions made without viable alternatives risk deepening inequality. His remarks were widely welcomed by the panel as a realistic and inclusive approach to the challenges ahead, the press release concludes.

Meanwhile, a press release by the Cyprus Shipping Chamber says that it organised, on the opening day of the ‘Maritime Cyprus 2025’ Conference a high-level panel discussion titled ‘Navigating Disruption: Steering the Shipping Industry Through Global Turbulences.’

The discussion was moderated by Thomas A. Kazakos, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and featured distinguished speakers from leading international shipowners’ organisations, including Themis Papadopoulos, Member of the Board and former Vice-Chairman of the ICS, Karin Orsel, President of the European Shipowners (ECSA), Ioanna Procopiou, President Designate of the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and Joe Kramek, President and CEO of the World Shipping Council (WSC).

The panel focused on the major challenges currently facing the global shipping industry, including the transition to decarbonisation, geopolitical uncertainties and increasing regulatory complexity. Speakers exchanged views on how shipowners and leading shipping organisations are adapting to an evolving landscape while maintaining operational efficiency and competitiveness, it says.