VZCZCXRO4780
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHNC #0596/01 1981237
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171237Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY NICOSIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7999
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0904
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NICOSIA 000596 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ETRN CY
SUBJECT:  CYPRUS'S FOUR NEW CABINET MINISTERS SWORN IN 
 
REF: NICOSIA 579 
 
(U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
---------- 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) GOC President Tassos Papadopoulos announced July 13 the 
appointment of four new ministers (including the first woman Foreign 
Minister, career diplomat Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis) to serve for the 
remaining seven months of the current administration.  The four 
replace the communist AKEL ministers who resigned en masse on July 
11 following AKEL's decision to support party leader Demetris 
Christofias (instead of Papadopoulos) in the February 2008 
presidential elections (reftel).  The new cabinet members were sworn 
in on July 16 and, besides Kozakou-Marcoullis, include relative 
unknowns Christos Patsalides as Minister of Interior, Maria 
Malahtou-Pamballi as Minister of Communications and Works, and 
Costas Kadis as Minister of Health. Please see below biographic 
information on all four new ministers, as well as contact 
information for the new Foreign Minister. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Bio & Comment: Kozakou-Marcoullis 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, Cyprus's new Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, was born on August 3, 1949, in Limassol.  She graduated in 
1975 from the University of Athens, Greece, with degrees in Law and 
in Public Law and Political Science. She did post graduate studies 
at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and obtained a Ph.D. in 
Sociology and Political Science in 1979.  She served in the 
Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the United Nations from 1980 to 1988. 
  She returned to Nicosia in 1989 and served in the Cyprus Question 
Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1993. From 1993 to 
1996, she served as Director of the Office of the Permanent 
Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Kozakou-Marcoullis 
 
SIPDIS 
next served as Ambassador to Sweden (also accredited to Finland, 
Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) from 1996 
to 1998, and then as Ambassador to the United States starting in 
September 1998 (also accredited as High Commissioner of Cyprus to 
Canada, Guyana and Jamaica, and as Ambassador to Brazil).  She 
returned to Nicosia from the U.S. in September 2003 to head the 
Cyprus Question Division of the Ministry.  She has been, 
concurrently, accredited as Ambassador to Lebanon and Jordan. 
Ambassador Marcoullis is fluent in Greek and English and can speak 
some French, Finnish, and Russian.  She is married to oncologist Dr. 
George Marcoullis, and has one son, Panos Marcoullis; her husband 
and son are American citizens. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Contact information: 
Name:  Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis 
Title:  Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Mailing Address:  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of 
Cyprus, Proedrikou Avenue, 1447 Nicosia, Cyprus 
Telephone numbers:  357 22 401200/401201 (office), 357 99 318553 
(cellular) 
E-mail Address:  elmarkoullis@mfa.gov.cy 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kozakou-Marcoullis's appointment as Foreign Minister was 
welcomed by pro-government and opposition parties alike because she 
enjoys a reputation as a capable and accomplished diplomat.  She is 
Cyprus's first woman Foreign Minister.  In her previous position as 
Director of the Cyprus Question Division, she has shown a keen 
interest in both U.S. and EU foreign assistance programs, 
consistently attempting to assert GOC authority over them.  The 
other three new ministers are relative unknowns, and include a 
second woman and two young academics.  According to Embassy 
contacts, Papadopoulos appointed these four new ministers on the 
advice of his Athens-based campaign communications experts; he aims 
to appeal to the female and youth votes.  However, Papadopoulos 
overlooked names recommended by his coalition partners DIKO and 
EDEK, which wanted a stronger presence in the administration after 
AKEL's departure.  Seemingly deaf to this loss, Papadopoulos could 
be treading on thin ice by ignoring his two remaining partners.  How 
well these appointments play politically remains to be seen. 
 
--------------- 
Bio: Patsalides 
--------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Dr. Christos Patsalides, the new Minister of Interior, was 
born in Paphos in 1972.  He studied at Hull University in the UK 
from 1993 to 2000, and has a Ph.D. in EU Law, an M.Phil. in Law and 
a Law Degree.  From September 2005 to present, Patsalides has been 
the Director of the Foundation of European Social and Political 
Studies and an Assistant Professor of EU Law at Cyprus College in 
Nicosia, serving as department chair of social sciences from 2003 to 
 
NICOSIA 00000596  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶2005. 
 
---------------------- 
Bio: Malahtou-Pamballi 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Maria Malahtou-Pamballi, the new Minister of Communications 
and Works, was born in Limassol in 1961.  In 1982, she graduated 
from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a Bachelor of Arts, 
with Honors.  She continued her studies at the University of London, 
where she graduated in 1983 with a Master of Law, specializing in 
maritime and corporate law.  Malahtou-Pamballi is a registered 
attorney and has practiced law in Cyprus since 1984.  She worked in 
private law offices in Limassol from 1984 to 1990, after which she 
was appointed as an attorney with the Attorney General's Office. 
From 2001 to present, she held the position of Senior Attorney of 
the Republic. She resides in Limassol and is married to Costas 
Pamballis, President of the Limassol District Court.  She has two 
daughters. 
 
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Bio: Kadis 
---------- 
 
¶7. (U) Dr. Costas Kadis, the new Minister of Health, was born in 
Nicosia in 1967.  He studied Biology at the University of Athens, 
where he received his degree in 1991.  He continued his studies at 
the University of Athens, receiving a Ph.D. in Biology Sciences, 
with Honors, in 1995.  After attending some teaching courses at 
Cornell University, he returned to Cyprus in 1996 to work as a 
Scientific Consultant at the Enalion Center of Environmental 
Management, owned by the Cyprus Development Bank.  In 1998, he was 
appointed as Officer at the Research Promotion Institute.  He 
remained with the Institute until 2005, when he was appointed Head 
of the Research Department at the Frederick Institute of Technology. 
 Also in 2005, he founded the Nature Conservation Unit, which has 
received funding from the European Union, the United Nations, the 
Research Promotion Institute, and the Government of Cyprus, 
undertaking 12 research programs.  Kadis has published several 
articles in international scientific magazines and written several 
environmental surveys.  He is a member of many scientific committees 
in Cyprus and abroad on natural environment and research issues. 
Kadis is married to Marina Michaelidou-Kadi and has a daughter named 
Sofia. 
 
SCHLICHER