CYPRUS:Cyprus's parliament yesterday ratified the Lisbon Treaty despite opposition from the ruling communists, who had dismissed it as pandering to big business at the expense of ordinary people.
In Nicosia, 31 members of the 56-seat parliament approved the pact. Seventeen members of Akel, the communist party which won presidential elections in February, opposed it.
"This [treaty] contains rules which protect the few to the detriment of many," Pambis Kyritsis, a senior Akel member, told parliament. He said his party was opposed to practices that gave a "procrustean logic" to fiscal policies, bolstered multinationals and made the European Central Bank unaccountable to citizens.
President Demetris Christofias, leader of Akel, has said that Cyprus will ratify the treaty in spite of his party's misgivings.
One political analyst described Akel's stance as "inconsequential populism" drawn from the need to satisfy its supporters at grassroots level, while relying on other parties to bail it out of a difficult position. "It's populism without consequences, knowing their opposition is purely symbolic," said Hubert Faustmann.
Without a treaty, future EU enlargement could be put on hold, with a potential detrimental effect on attempts to solve Cyprus's long-running division. - (Reuters)