17 April 2015

The third date for the Parliamentary Ethics Committee’s hearing into the action taken against FBME Bank’s Cyprus branch is next Tuesday, 21 April. A brief confirmation of the agenda is on the Parliament’s website at http://www.parliament.cy/easyconsole.cfm/id/326.

The website says the Committee will investigate “actions of the Government that could harm the public interest” in relation to FBME.

Those invited to attend the Committee’s hearing are the Attorney General, the Minister of Finance, the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, members of the Resolution Authority past and present, and the head of the Republic’s financial crime fighting agency Mokas.

This hearing was originally scheduled for 17 February, but was cancelled by members of the Committee at the request of the Attorney General, who felt that information might emerge that could harm the Republic’s case in various legal cases in Paris and Cyprus.

It was moved to 31 March and it was agreed that the hearing would be held in private. Unfortunately, most of those invited failed to show up, prompting annoyance from the MPs. The head of the Committee, Demetrios Syllouris MP, warned officials not to think they could conceal their mistakes by hiding behind procedural devices. He reminded them that the elected representatives of the people are the highest authority in the Republic.

“No one can remove the paramount authority of Parliamentary control,” he said.