Greece to appoint Cypriot former EU Commissioner as minister

The Greek government is expected to appoint on Monday former European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides as minister of the newly established civil protection ministry.

The move comes after Evangelos Apostolakis, a former admiral and defence minister under leftist Syriza government, rejected last week a proposal to take over the post.

The new ministry is considered crucial, as it will have to address, among others, the issue of how to protect forests after wildfires in August burned thousands of hectares.

The decision to appoint a Cypriot politician has already triggered some reactions in Athens, considering that the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis did not pick an already elected member of his party and because Stylianides does not have Greek citizenship.

According to the Greek constitution, for an MP to be elected, he must be a Greek citizen and have the right to vote and to be elected.

News website in.gr quoted government sources as saying that Stylianides will be granted Greek citizenship before being sworn in as minister.

Stylianides is a centre-right politician (EPP) and was a member of Jean-Claude Juncker’s cabinet.

EURACTIV reported in September 2019 that when he asked the Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to renew his mandate in the next European Commission, his request was rejected.

The reason why Stylianides was turned down is that he did not manage to keep the issue of golden visas on the backburner, or even off the Commission’s agenda entirely, EURACTIV learned.

(Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com)