Panayiotou says Cyprus government has failed citizens over rising energy costs

Strasbourg, France. Direct Democracy Cyprus leader Fidias Panayiotou said on Wednesday that Cyprus’ government had “failed its citizens” over high and rising energy prices, calling on the European Union to provide emergency relief during a European Parliament debate on energy.

Call for relief from emissions costs

Addressing the Strasbourg plenary session, Panayiotou said Cyprus’ failure to import natural gas and secure sufficient battery storage for renewable energy had left the island dependent on fossil fuels.

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“The government of my country, Cyprus, has failed its citizens, and now we are paying one of the highest bills for electricity. For years, the Cypriot government has not managed to import natural gas, and it has failed to get enough batteries for renewable energy,” he said.

He said 20 per cent of electricity bills went towards paying for CO2 emissions through the EU emissions trading system (ETS).

“Don’t get me wrong, protecting the planet is extremely important, but during this crisis, we must first protect our citizens. I ask the EU to step in and try to fix this problem, made by our government, by giving us an emergency relief,” he said.

Panayiotou called for lower CO2 emissions costs during the energy crisis, saying Cypriot citizens could not afford them.

Italy and Czech Republic seek temporary ETS suspension

His comments came after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis sent a joint letter to the European Commission demanding a “temporary suspension” of the ETS across Europe to curb rising energy costs.

The letter said a suspension would “provide immediate relief to European industry from carbon costs”.

“However, in the absence of sufficient support for such an option, it is worth considering a number of targeted and immediately actionable alternatives that the European Council could promote to alleviate the impact of the current shock and complement measures already announced at a European level,” it said.

Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto went further, saying that “a tax like ETS today is unjust, absurd, unsustainable in international competition, and creates inequalities because it falls indiscriminately and equally on all European end consumers”.

Cyprus minister requests greater EU support

Cypriot Energy Minister Michael Damianos said last week that he had called on the EU to offer more support to “address the impact of the energy crisis” during a two-day informal meeting of energy ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states in Dublin.