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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHNC #0153/01 0601510
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291510Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY NICOSIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8636
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1089
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NICOSIA 000153 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL CY
SUBJECT: NEW CYPRIOT CABINET NAMED; FEW SURPRISES 
 
Reference:  A) Nicosia 123  B) Nicosia 114 
 
¶1.  Summary:  After four days of difficult deliberations with the 
parties that supported his candidacy, RoC President-elect Demetris 
Christofias on February 28 announced the members of his cabinet. 
Filling the 11-member body are four ministers from Christofias's 
AKEL party, three from DIKO, two from EDEK, one from the Front for 
the Restoration of the Center, and one independent, the new Minister 
of Finance.  At his same-day inauguration, Christofias pledged that 
solving the Cyprus Problem was the top priority of his presidency. 
Cabinet member bios begin in Paragraph 6.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------- 
Christofias's First Moves 
------------------------- 
 
¶2.  As agreed in their pre-runoff negotiations (Reftels), shortly 
after his February 24 election, Republic of Cyprus President 
Demetris Christofias began staffing consultations with the parties 
that supported his candidacy.  Up for grabs were eleven cabinet 
seats, a handful of high-level positions at the Presidential Palace, 
and the European Health Commissioner slot (vacant upon the 
reassignment of incumbent Marcos Kyprianou, who now heads the MFA). 
Deliberations ran smoothly with all parties except DIKO, which 
delayed submitting a candidate list because of internal discord and 
the hard-to-swallow conditions that Christofias had set (the 
President was adamant he would have the last word on appointments, 
and demanded that the other parties simply submit nominee lists.) 
He also mandated that all new ministers pledge to adhere fully to 
his pre-election program. 
 
¶3.  The new cabinet includes four AKEL-affiliated Ministers:  AKEL 
Central Committee staffer Neoclis Silikiotis returns for a second 
stint as Minister of Interior; Sotiroula Charalambous, AKEL MP and 
long-time labor union official, as Minister of Labor; AKEL MP Costas 
Papacostas as Minister of Defense; and AKEL-affiliated academic 
Andreas Demetriou as Minister of Education.  In addition to Marcos 
Kyprianou as Foreign Minister, DIKO's ministers include former 
Interior Minister Christos Patsalides as Minister of Health, and 
lawyer Antonis Paschalides as Minister of Commerce, Industry and 
Tourism.  The ministers hailing from EDEK are relative unknowns: 
Limassol EDEK District Committee President Nicos Nicolaides as 
Minister of Communications and Works, and a central committee member 
from Paphos, Michalis Polynikis, as Minister of Agriculture, Natural 
Resources and Environment.  The leader of the tiny Front for the 
Restoration of the Center, former Government Spokesman Kypros 
Chrysostomides, is the new Minister of Justice and Public Order, 
while the Ministry of Finance went to non-affiliated banker 
Charilaos Stavrakis. 
 
¶4.  Christofias's former campaign spokesman, Stefanos Stefanou, is 
the new Government Spokesman, while Christofias's choice to fill the 
Commission slot, former First Lady and current United Democrats MP 
Androula Vassiliou, should win EU confirmation within days. 
Three-time former Foreign Minister George Iacovou was appointed 
Presidential Commissioner, a newly-created position.  Christofias 
abolished the post of Diplomatic Coordinator, until now held by 
chief RoC negotiator, Intelligence Service chief, and close Tassos 
Papadopoulos confidant Tasos Tzionis. 
 
¶5.  President Christofias was invested February 28 in a brief 
ceremony at the House of Representatives.  In his inaugural 
statement he reiterated the main points of his election-night 
speech, stressing that he had run for president only "to fulfill his 
life-long vision of solving the Cyprus Problem and building a fairer 
society."  He repeated that the desired Cyprus end-state was a 
bizonal, bicommunal federation, and emphasized his support for 
"political equality of the two communities in the framework of a 
federation, as defined in the relevant UNSC resolutions."  In what 
is viewed as a nod to opposition DISY to return to the National 
Council, Christofias pledged to upgrade the institution and make it 
more effective. Referring to his economic policy, he will continue 
to improve the "mixed economic model, based on cooperation between 
private, public, and cooperative sectors." 
 
------------------------------ 
Biographies of Cabinet Members 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou was born in Limassol in 1960. 
He is the son of the late former President of the Republic of 
Cyprus, Spyros Kyprianou.  He studied Law at the National and 
Kapodistrian University of Athens and did graduate studies (LL.M.) 
at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge, in the U.K., and 
at Harvard Law.  He was active in politics from his student years 
and served in various DIKO party posts.  He was elected to the House 
of Representatives in 1991, 1996 and 2001, but resigned his seat in 
2003 when he was appointed Minister of Finance by Tassos 
Papadopoulos.  He became EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer 
Protection on May 1, 2004 when Cyprus joined the EU. 
 
 
NICOSIA 00000153  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶7.  The new Minister of Finance, Charilaos Stavrakis, was born in 
1956 and holds a BSc in Economics from Cambridge University and an 
MBA from Harvard.  After a two-month stint in the World Bank in 
1989, he joined the Bank of Cyprus and worked in various posts.  In 
2005 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Bank's 
operations in Cyprus and Deputy Group Executive Officer, in addition 
to his duties as Director of the Bank's many sister companies.  In 
June 2005, he became Chairman of the Board of the parastatal Cyprus 
Electricity Authority. 
¶8.  Interior Minister Neoclis Silikiotis was born in 1959 and 
studied engineering in Aachen, Germany, where he was active in the 
student movement.  Upon his return to Cyprus in 1987, he worked for 
EDON, the youth organization of AKEL, in the student sector and in 
international relations.  In 1995 he became a full time employee of 
AKEL's Central Committee.  He was the head of the Education Bureau 
of the party and a member of the Education Council.  He was 
appointed Minister of Interior in September 2006, but resigned in 
July 2007 along with all other AKEL Ministers when Christofias 
announced his candidacy for the presidency. 
¶9.  Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides 
was born in 1955 and studied Law in the UK.  He is the managing 
partner of the Antonis Paschalides and Company law firm.  He was a 
member of DIKO, but left the party in 1988 together with former DIKO 
leading official Alexis Galanos to form the party KEA 
(Eurodemocratic Renewal Movement).  After Galanos's resignation in 
1999, he became the leader of KEA.  He merged his party with DIKO in 
2006 and is a member of its executive secretariat. 
 
¶10.  New Labor Minister Sotiroula Charalambous was born in 1963 and 
studied political and social sciences in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Upon her 
return to Cyprus in 1986, she was hired by left-wing labor 
federation PEO and served in various posts there.  She is also a 
member of the Central Committee of AKEL and member of the executive 
secretariat of AKEL's women's movement, POGO.  She was elected to 
 
SIPDIS 
the House of Representatives in 2001 and 2006. 
 
¶11.  The new Minister of Defense, Costas Papacostas, was born in 
1939 and graduated from the Senior War College and the National 
Defense School of Greece.  Later he attended specialized police 
training in the United States and Germany on counter-terrorism and 
on crisis management.  He served for 18 years in the Greek Cypriot 
National Guard and was promoted to Colonel.  In 1973, he joined the 
Auxiliary Police Unit which was set up to counteract the action of 
EOKA B, the group which eventually participated in the coup against 
then-leader Archbishop Makarios.  Papacostas was promoted to Deputy 
Chief of Police but resigned in 1996, citing his political bosses' 
poor oversight of the police force.  Representing AKEL in the 
Famagusta district, he was elected to the House of Representatives 
in 2001 and 2006. 
 
¶12.  The new Minister of Education and Culture, Andreas Demetriou, 
was born in 1950 and has a PhD in Psychology from the Aristotelion 
University of Thessaloniki, Greece.  He also did graduate studies on 
psychology at the University of New South Wales in Australia. 
Demetriou taught psychology at various universities including 
Aristotelion, the University of Cyprus, and universities in 
Switzerland and Slovakia.  At the time of his appointment, he was 
Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the 
University of Cyprus and President of the Interim Governing Board of 
the Technological University of Cyprus. 
 
¶13.  Kypros Chrysostomides, the new Minister of Justice and Public 
Order, was born 1942.  He studied Law at the University of Athens, 
Comparative Law at the Luxembourg Law School, and has a Ph.D. in Law 
from the University of Bonn. He worked for four years with the 
European Commission of Human Rights of the Council of Europe. 
Chrysostomides returned to Cyprus in 1973 and began practicing law 
in Nicosia.  He was an active member of the Democratic Party (DIKO) 
and served the party from various positions, being elected Deputy 
General Secretary in 1988 and serving on the party's executive 
committee. In the mid-90's he broke ranks with DIKO and in 1998 
formed his own political movement, the Front for the Reconstruction 
of the Center, which he continues to lead.  In 2001, Chrysostomides 
unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Nicosia.  From 2003 to January 2006 
he served as Government Spokesman in President Papadopoulos's 
administration. 
 
¶14.  The youngest member of the new cabinet, Minister of Health 
Christos Patsalides, is also the only carryover from the 
Papadopoulos era.  Born in 1973, he studied at the UK's Hull 
University from 1993 to 2000, and has a Ph.D. in EU Law.  From 2005 
to 2007 he was the Director of the Foundation of European Social and 
Political Studies, and an Assistant Professor of EU Law at Cyprus 
College in Nicosia.  He was appointed Minister of Interior on July 
16, 2007. 
 
¶15.  Nicos Nicolaides, the new Minister of Communications and Works, 
was born in 1953.  He studied in the United States and has a BSc and 
an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Dartmouth College and the 
University of South California, respectively.  He spent much of his 
career with the semi-governmental Cyprus Electricity Authority, and 
 
NICOSIA 00000153  003 OF 003 
 
 
at the time of his appointment, he was Deputy Director for Limassol 
District.  He is a member of the EDEK central committee and is 
president of party's Limassol organization. 
 
¶16.  The Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, 
Michalis Polynikis Charalambides, was born in 1948 and studied 
medicine in Athens.  He worked in Greek hospitals until 1991, when 
he returned to Cyprus to open his own private practice in his home 
town of Paphos.  Charalambides belongs to the EDEK central committee 
and political bureau, and heads the party's Paphos organization. 
 
¶17.  The new Government spokesman, Stephanos Stephanou, was born in 
1965 and studied Political Sciences at the Academy of Social 
Sciences and Social Administration of Sofia, Bulgaria.  On 
completion of his studies he was hired by the youth organization of 
AKEL, EDON, as chief editor of the organization's newsletter.  In 
1996, he was elected General Secretary of EDON.  In 2001 Stephanou 
was appointed director of the House Speaker's office, under 
then-Speaker Demetris Christofias.  During the election campaign, 
Stephanou served as Christofias's spokesman. 
 
SCHLICHER