Category: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus’ Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos is travelling to Japan for a working visit, during which he is to hold significant contacts including with Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the visit is aimed at further strengthening Cyprus-Japan bilateral relations and broadening cooperation between the two countries in areas of common interest.

During his stay in Tokyo, Kombos is to meet with Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Monday. ‘The talks will focus on bilateral relations and prospects for further deepening them, as well as regional and international issues of common interest,’ the statement said.

The Foreign Minister is to also meet with Seiichiro Murakami, Chair of the Japan-Cyprus Parliamentary Friendship Group in Japan’s Diet and visit Waseda University, it adds.

As part of the visit, Kombos will also hold meetings with representatives of business organisations and other officials, as well as with Cypriot nationals residing in Japan.

Kombos departs for Japan on Saturday.

President Nikos Christodoulides has co-signed a joint letter to the Irish Presidency ahead of the next phase of negotiations on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), together with the leaders of 16 other EU Member States, according to a post on the X account of the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus.

‘The common position is that Europe must have sufficient resources to address its new priorities, while safeguarding funding for Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy,’ the post said.

For Cyprus, strong Cohesion and Agricultural Policies mean balanced development, support for rural areas and the primary sector, and enhanced competitiveness, it said.

‘Of particular importance is the common position of the 17 Member States, as set out in the joint letter, that the overall size of the MFF, as reflected in the Negotiating Box agreed under the Cyprus Presidency, remains a strong basis for the next steps in the negotiations on the new MFF. This constitutes significant recognition of the work and contribution of the Cyprus Presidency to shaping the next EU budget,’ it adds.

The aim is an ambitious, balanced and adequately funded EU budget capable of responding both to Europe’s longstanding challenges and to its new priorities, the statement concludes.

Cyprus secured their first Nations League victory on Friday night, beating Armenia 2-0 at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia despite playing with ten men from the 52nd minute, in their third Group B match in League C.

The win lifted Cyprus to second place in the group, with one win, one draw and one defeat, keeping them in contention for one of the top two spots.

Leonidas Konomis opened the scoring for Cyprus in the 19th minute, before Andronikos Kakoullis doubled the lead in the 31st.

Cyprus were reduced to ten men in the 52nd minute when Kostas Pileas was shown a straight red card for a hard tackle on an opponent.

After three matches, unbeaten Montenegro lead the group with nine points, followed by Cyprus with four, Armenia with three and Latvia with one.

CYPRUS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY

FORECAST FOR THE SEA AREA OF CYPRUS (B)

FOR THE PERIOD FROM 1200 03/10/2026 UNTIL 1200 04/10/2026

Area covered is 8 kilometers seawards.

Winds are in BEAUFORT scale. Times are local times.

Atmospheric pressure at the time of issue: 1016hPa (hectopascal)

Low pressure and unstable airmass are affecting the area. At times local showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected. IN STORM AREA WIND MAY BE VARIABLE STRENGTHENING TO 5-6 BEAUFORT WITH STRONGER GUSTS.

Visibility: Good, but moderate to poor in showers

Sea surface temperature: 27°C

Warnings: NIL

AREA PERIOD WIND STATE OF SEA

West Coast

Afternoon Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Night Northeast to Southeast 3, locally 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Morning East to Southeast 3, gradually Southeast to Southwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

South Coast

Afternoon Southwest 3 to 4, locally 4 Smooth to Slight, locally Slight

Night Northwest to Northeast 3, locally South to Southwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Morning Northeast to Southeast 3 to 4, gradually Southeast to Southwest 4 Smooth to Slight

East Coast

Afternoon South to Southwest 3 to 4, at times locally 4 Smooth to Slight

Night Southwest to Northwest 3, initially South to Southwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Morning East to Southeast 3 to 4, gradually Southeast to South Smooth to Slight

North Coast

Afternoon South to Southwest 3 to 4, at times Variable Smooth

Night Southeast to Southwest 3, locally Variable 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Morning Southeast to Southwest 3 to 4, gradually South to Southwest Smooth to Slight

More than 500 complaints submitted by patients in four months, Ombudsman tells CNA

Cyprus’ Patient Rights Officers recorded 534 complaints and requests in their first four months of operation. The complaints concern, inter alia, quality of care, waiting times, unnecessary inconvenience and information, Patient Ombudsman Marios Charalambides told CNA.

Between May 1 and August 31, 2026, 293 written complaints and 241 verbal requests were recorded, or more than 130 a month. The written complaints contained a total of 843 references to categories of patients’ rights that may have been violated.

Around two in ten written complaints concerned Accident and Emergency (A and E) departments.

Speaking to CNA almost a year after taking office, Charalambides described the complaints mechanism as ‘a useful tool’, while stressing that individual complaints are only one indicator and do not provide the full picture of patients’ rights in Cyprus.

‘The public has started using the mechanism,’ he said, adding that he expects its use to increase over time.

Quality of care was the most frequently cited category in written complaints, with 98 references, or 33%. Charalambides said this did not relate solely to medical errors, but also to negligence, service standards, continuity of care and the way individual cases are handled.

Respect for patients’ time followed with 88 references, while 80 concerned the avoidance of unnecessary inconvenience and pain.

Charalambides said there could be no fixed definition of a ‘reasonable’ waiting time, as this depended on the circumstances of each case, although clear limits and a framework were necessary.

Referring to A and E departments, he said problems remained both in patient transfers and referrals and in the service, patients receive within emergency departments.

‘Some action has been taken, but we are not at a point where anyone could say the issue has been resolved,’ he said.

Nearly half of A and E-related complaints concerned unnecessary inconvenience and pain. Charalambides also highlighted the importance of keeping patients informed while they wait.

‘It is not only the waiting time itself. It is also what information I receive while I am waiting,’ he said.

Provision of information was cited in 71 written complaints, or 24%. Charalambides said patients must not only be informed but must also understand the information they are given before consenting to treatment.

He said communication should be adapted to each patient’s needs, particularly when patients have difficulty understanding specialised terminology or in the case of older people.

‘We must make sure that what we have informed someone about, or what we have asked them to consent to, has actually been understood,’ he said.

Asked whether patients sometimes consent to treatment without fully understanding what is going to happen, Charalambides said: ‘There have been, and still are, such cases.’

According to the figures, 62% of written complaints and 58% of verbal requests concerned the public sector. Charalambides cautioned, however, against direct comparisons with the private sector because of differences in patient volumes, types of cases and services provided.

He said more data and additional forms of evaluation were needed before firm conclusions could be drawn about whether particular problems were more prevalent in either sector.

District Complaints Review Committees, the final stage of the individual complaints mechanism, became operational on October 1. Patients dissatisfied with the response received from a Patient Rights Officer may ask the relevant committee to review their case. The committee has one month to complete its examination.

Charalambides said health sector problems were often interconnected and could not be addressed in isolation.

‘Quality, time, inconvenience and information go together,’ he said, stressing the need for cooperation to identify practices that infringe patients’ rights and take corrective action.

Department of Meteorology

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

Date 03/10/2026

Station

TEMPERATURE (C) (FROM 20:00 PC of the previous one until the time of the show)

Highest

Lowest

Humidity at

1200 UTC

Nicosia (Athalassa)

27

13

48

Larnaka Airport

29

17

76

Limassol

27

17

53

Pafos Airport

27

19

56

Frenaros

28

17

64

Prodromos

17

9

68

Polis Pafos

26

18

60

Cyprus highlighted the continuing human rights violations on the island and outlined its broader human rights priorities in a statement delivered by its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Maria Michail, during the General Debate of the Third Committee of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly.

Ambassador Michail said that ‘Cyprus considers human rights one of the cornerstones of the multilateral system and continues to place their promotion and protection at the heart of its foreign policy.’ She noted that, as a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term, Cyprus ‘remains firmly committed to contributing constructively to the Council’s work and to advancing the universal promotion, protection and fulfilment of human rights at both national and international levels.’

Referring to the Cyprus issue, Ambassador Michail said that ‘the people of Cyprus have experienced for the last 52 years, gross violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, as a result of the illegal Turkish military invasion and continued military occupation of 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, in flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter.’

She added that ‘more than one third of the population are still internally displaced, being denied the right to return and peacefully enjoy their properties,’ while their land is ‘subjected to unlawful exploitation by the occupation regime.’

Ambassador Michail also referred to what she described as ‘the occupying power’s systematic policy of demographic engineering through the mass transfer of settlers,’ which, she said, ‘constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law.’ On cultural heritage, she said that ‘over 500 churches’ have been ‘looted, desecrated, or destroyed.’

The Permanent Representative further said that the few hundred enclaved Greek Cypriots and Maronites who remain in the occupied areas ‘continue to face oppression and discrimination, including restrictions on education, religion, and access to their communities.’ She added that ‘the fate of nearly half of the missing persons in Cyprus remains unresolved’ due to “Trkiye’s refusal to provide the Committee on Missing Persons with all relevant information from its military archives and to grant unhindered access to areas it classifies as military”.

Ambassador Michail also referred to Turkish Cypriots living under occupation, saying that ‘their freedom of expression, thought, religion, and association are curtailed; their daily lives are subjected to surveillance and interference and their culture and identity are suppressed.’

‘The passage of time can never render human rights violations acceptable, nor can it diminish the obligations arising from international law,’ she stressed. ‘Cyprus will continue to firmly and consistently raise these violations in all relevant international fora, until the rights and fundamental freedoms of all Cypriots are fully restored’ she said.

She also addressed gender equality and violence against women and girls, the rights of persons with disabilities and children, youth participation, active ageing, the protection of LGBTIQ+ persons, and the protection of cultural diversity and heritage.

Concluding, she said that ‘Cyprus remains firmly committed to upholding the universality, indivisibility and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.’ She added that, ‘as a country that continues to endure the consequences of occupation and division, Cyprus will continue to speak for the rights of all Cypriots and to advocate for the protection of those most vulnerable.’

Conservation works have been completed at the mosque in Koilani, Limassol district, and at the Church of Ayia Paraskevi in Palaiosofos, Kyrenia district, according to Sotos Ktoris, Co-Chair of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.

In a post on social media, Ktoris said that work had been completed at the mosque in Koilani, one of the oldest mosques in Limassol district.

‘The conservation of the mosque in Koilani keeps alive the hope that our cultural heritage can bridge Cyprus’ past with its future, building bonds of trust among the people of this land,’ Ktoris said.

The project was funded by the European Union and implemented under the technical guidance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), he added.

In other posts, Ktoris announced the start of conservation works at the Church of Ayia Irene in the community of the same name in Kyrenia district, as well as the completion of conservation works at the Church of Ayia Paraskevi in Palaiosofos, also in Kyrenia district.

The projects were carried out with financial support from the European Union, under the guidance of the UNDP.

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.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term nears its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.

Fiscal policy in response to inflation should not aim to permanently contain prices through across-the-board tax interventions but should, where necessary, provide targeted and temporary protection to vulnerable groups, the Cyprus Fiscal Council (CFC) said in a presentation on inflation in Cyprus released on Friday.

The presentation, titled ‘Inflation in Cyprus 2025-2026: From the Energy Shock to a Fiscally Prudent Response’, analyses the evolution of inflation through August 2026, the contribution of energy, food and services, as well as fiscal options for temporary and targeted support for vulnerable groups.

According to the CFC, Cyprus saw a ‘sharp reversal’, moving from the lowest inflation rate in the EU in 2025 (0.8%) to the third-highest in the EU in August 2026 (5.2%). It notes that the speed of this shift highlights ‘Cyprus’s unusually high sensitivity to the external energy shock’.

Energy drives the increase

————

According to the presentation, energy triggered the rise in inflation, while pressures also broadened to services.

According to the CFC, fuel prices were affected directly, while electricity prices followed with a lag of around two months. Nevertheless, the CFC notes that petrol in Cyprus remains among the cheapest in the EU-27, weakening the case for further tax cuts.

As regards electricity, while the charge for households is close to the EU average, businesses pay the second-highest electricity prices in the EU. ‘For businesses, the high price is a competitiveness issue, not just an inflation issue,’ the CFC stressed.

‘The root of the problem is structural,’ the CFC said, noting that Cyprus imports 88% of its energy, almost entirely petroleum products, with import dependence in 2024 standing at 88%, compared with 57% in the EU. As it notes, energy dependence increases exposure to international disruptions. Every rise in Brent prices feeds through into fuel, electricity generation and transport costs, with the impact being greater on lower-income households and energy-intensive sectors such as hotels and transport.

Furthermore, it added, without interconnection, storage and natural gas, the economy cannot quickly switch to alternative energy sources.

Across-the-board tax cuts are costly

———–

Across-the-board tax cuts are costly, untargeted, temporarily conceal inflation and tend to become permanent, the CFC stresses, noting that energy costs cannot be permanently addressed through tax interventions. ‘More domestic energy is needed, which can be stored. Priority should be given to storage, grids and the energy upgrading of households, which permanently reduce exposure to oil and ETS costs,’ it said.

According to the CFC, 2026 saw a repeat of ‘the 2022 recipe’, with successive extensions of across-the-board tax cuts affecting excise duty, VAT on electricity and VAT on certain products, with existing measures exceeding pound 200 million.

‘Tax cuts ‘hide’ inflation today and bring it back when they expire,’ the CFC warned, stressing that if tax cuts are used in response to an exceptional shock, they should be temporary, time-limited and reversible.

It also said that a ‘normal’ inflation reference price should be established to distinguish an extreme shock from normal fluctuations. Specifically, it proposed using the average of the previous 36 months at current prices, deflated using the underlying Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, with a ‘tolerance band’ of ±15%.

‘The deviation from the normal price can determine when, how much and for how long support is provided,’ the CFC noted. As an example, it said that deviations of up to 15% should trigger no intervention, while deviations above 15% lasting less than 12 months should be considered a ‘temporary shock’, with support provided only to vulnerable households. A deviation of more than 15% lasting longer than 12 months could be considered a ‘potential new level’, with support withdrawn gradually over six months.

Under this methodology, according to the CFC, only the period 2022-23 constituted a ‘new level’, while in 2026 all deviations are considered a ‘temporary shock’.

Moreover, according to the CFC, permanently containing prices delays the necessary adjustment of the economy, creates misguided incentives by encouraging greater consumption of imported energy and slowing the shift towards renewables and energy efficiency, increases fiscal costs without a predetermined limit, and turns temporary measures into permanent obligations.

For this reason, it proposed the gradual withdrawal of support, announced in advance with a clear timetable, smoothing the impact only for vulnerable groups and for a limited period, and investing the fiscal space released in storage, grids and the energy upgrading of homes.

In conclusion, the CFC stressed that fiscal policy in response to inflation should not aim to permanently contain prices through across-the-board tax interventions. It should distinguish temporary shocks from permanent changes in relative prices, allow the economy to make the necessary adjustment and, where required, provide targeted and temporary protection to vulnerable groups.

President of the House of Representatives Annita Demetriou will travel to Slovakia on Sunday, October 4, for an official visit at the invitation of President of the country’s National Council Richard Rasi.

According to a House of Representatives press release, during her stay in Bratislava, Demetriou will be received by Slovak President Peter Pellegrini and will hold separate meetings with National Council President Richard Rasi and Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Robert Kalinak.

As part of her visit, Demetriou, accompanied by Slovak Health Minister Kamil Sasko, will visit the Children’s Cancer Centre of the National Institute of Children’s Diseases, which operates under the auspices of Pellegrini.

The House President will also visit sites of historical and cultural interest.

Demetriou will return to Cyprus on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 6.