The draft law which removes the powers from the Commerce Minister in negotiating with companies for the licenses in the Cypriot EEZ and passing it on to the technocrats will be approved by the Parliament in the afternoon.

The bill also provides for the abolition of the advisory committee for the natural gas and the composition of a technical committee, which will evaluate the bids and will negotiate with the companies. Until now, this has been a responsibility of the Commerce Minister.

It is worth noting that the government and AKEL have reacted strongly to the bill, stressing that it tries to abolish the state.

DISY favours the bill while DIKO and EDEK will state their view to the plenary.

Some parties will submit amendments in a bid to make the bill acceptable.

In the morning informal meeting of the party leaders or representatives in Parliament, DIKO allegedly requested the cancellation of the talks. Its request was not accepted by DISY.

At some point, the climate in the committee was tensed when representatives of AKEL and DISY expressed their irritation to the statement of Ecologists’ MP, Giorgos Perdikis about natural gas and interests.

In the afternoon, each party will have at its disposal five minutes to express its opinion on the draft law.