The leaders and representatives of political parties are meeting at parliament today to appoint the eight MPs who will form the Selection Committee. This body will be responsible for allocating the 16 chairs of the parliamentary committees and determining their overall composition.
Party leaders and representatives are holding their first meeting today under House President Annita Demetriou. The meeting will establish the composition of the Selection Committee, which oversees the distribution of parliamentary committee chairs and member assignments. Representatives from the two smaller parties, ALMA and Direct Democracy of Cyprus, are also attending the meeting.
The Selection Committee
The Selection Committee is composed of MPs from parties that maintain an official parliamentary group. Under parliamentary regulations, a party qualifies as a parliamentary group if it holds at least 12% of the total seats in the House, which equates to seven or more MPs. Consequently, the parties meeting this criterion and eligible for committee membership are DISY, AKEL, ELAM and DIKO.
The eight seats on the committee will be allocated proportionally based on electoral strength. It is estimated that DISYand AKEL will each appoint three MPs, while ELAM and DIKO will each appoint one. The final composition of the Selection Committee will be ratified during Thursday's plenary session.
According to information obtained by Politis, the Selection Committee is expected to consist of the following members:
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Annita Demetriou (Ex-officio Chair)
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DISY: Demetris Demetriou, Giorgos Karoullas and Savvia Orphanidou (the latter two serve as party vice-presidents)
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AKEL: Stefanos Stefanou, Giorgos Loukaides and Aristos Damianou
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DIKO: Panicos Leonidou
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ELAM: Christos Christou
In the new parliament, DIKO loses its second seat on the Selection Committee, which now goes to ELAM.
Demands for committee chairs
The leadership of the four major parties, who will decide on the allocation of committee chairs alongside House President Annita Demetriou, do not appear to favour granting committee chairs to the two newly established parties, ALMA and Direct Democracy of Cyprus, despite their requests.
According to parliamentary regulations revised last April, committee chairs are allocated exclusively to parties that form a parliamentary group. Therefore, only DISY, AKEL, ELAM and DIKO are entitled to claim these positions.
Current assessments indicate that DISY and AKEL are expected to retain the five chairs they held in the previous parliament, while DIKO is expected to keep its three allocated chairs. As a result, ELAM will receive the remaining three chairs.
Disagreements over committee mergers
Today's meeting is also expected to examine a proposal to merge several committees, specifically the Legal Affairs and Human Rights committees, the Institutions and Oversight committees, and the Agriculture and Environment committees.
However, this proposal does not appear to command the required majority. The committees proposed for merger cover a broad range of responsibilities and handle a large volume of legislative work and parliamentary scrutiny. Merging them would require them to meet at least twice a week, whereas they currently meet once a week.
The primary obstacle to the proposal is that mergers would reduce the total number of parliamentary committee chairs. This would compress the available leadership positions from 16 to 13, a development that does not find support among the political parties.
The 16 committee chairs
The 16 parliamentary committee chairs are expected to be distributed as follows:
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Committee on Foreign and European Affairs: DISY. The chair is expected to be taken by one of the party's senior MPs.
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Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs: DIKO. The party wishes to retain Christiana Erotokritou in the chair.
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Committee on Internal Affairs: AKEL. The chair was held by Aristos Damianou, who is expected to remain in place.
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Committee on Defence: DISY or ELAM. Following EDEK's failure to elect an MP, the chair is being contested by DISY and ELAM.
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Committee on Education: DIKO or ELAM. The chair was held by DIKO's Pavlos Mylonas. His most likely replacement is Chrysanthos Savvides, who served as deputy chair in the previous parliament. ELAM is also expected to contest this chair.
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Committee on Transport: ELAM. The position became vacant after DEPA failed to secure parliamentary representation. The chair is expected to go to ELAM.
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Committee on Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism: DISY. The chair was held by Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis, who is expected to be succeeded by Nicos Georgiou.
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Committee on Agriculture: AKEL. The chair was held by Yiannakis Gavriel, who was re-elected and is expected to continue.
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Committee on Labour: AKEL. The chair was held by Andreas Kafkalias. A likely replacement is Giorgos Koukoumas, who previously served as a committee member.
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Committee on Legal Affairs: DISY. The chair was held by Nicos Tornaritis, who is expected to be succeeded by Fotini Tsiridou.
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Committee on Health: DISY. The chair was held by Efthymios Diplaros. The most likely replacement is Savvia Orphanidou.
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Committee on Development Plans and Public Expenditure Control: DIKO. The chair was held by Zacharias Koulias, who is expected to continue.
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Committee on Refugees: AKEL. The chair was held by Nicos Kettiros, who is expected to continue.
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Committee on Environment: AKEL or ELAM. The chair was previously held by the Green Party. The position is now vacant and will be contested by AKEL and ELAM.
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Committee on Human Rights: AKEL. The chair was held by Irene Charalambidou and will remain with the party.
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Committee on Institutions: DISY. The chair was held by Demetris Demetriou. Another DISY MP may take over the role, as Demetris Demetriou has assumed duties as the party's parliamentary spokesperson.
