Filenews 10 March 2023
By 22 votes against and 18 in favour, the Plenum of the Parliament voted against a proposal for a new three-month suspension of foreclosures, which had been tabled in the form of urgency.
The proposal for a law had been submitted by AKEL MPs, Stavros Papadouris, MP of the Ecologists' Movement for Cooperation and Citizens, and Kostis Efstathiou, MP for Nicosia. It provided for a new targeted suspension of foreclosures until June 10, 2023 for a main residence worth up to €300,000, a business premises with a turnover of up to €750,000 and a plot of land up to €100,000.
Previously, an oral amendment by DIKO President Nicolas Papadopoulos to the draft law, which limited the suspension of foreclosures until April 10, 2023, had been rejected.
Mr. Papadopoulos had initially appealed to the parliamentary groups not to proceed with the submission of the bill, in order to give time to the new Government and the new Minister of Finance to come with suggestions for a comprehensive resolution of the issue and said that it is not the end of the world, if an extension of fifteen days is given to do so.
Alekos Tryfonidis, a member of the Greek Parliament, also agreed with the proposal, stating that a fifteen-day window is reasonable, so that the new MIC will come with appropriate proposals for a permanent solution to the issue of non-performing loans (NPLs). At the same time, it sent a message to loan servicing companies to stop the "predatory onslaught" and to make sense to borrowers until a solution is found.
However, AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaidis, saying that financial institutions and credit-acquiring companies have intensified the outburst of people, said they cannot remain apathetic to this reality. At the same time, he said that the new Government has time to bring its proposals, but one cannot claim that the issues can be dealt with institutionally within 15 days. He also said that the President of the Republic has 15 days to sign or refer back the law.
The MP of the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation, Stavros Papadouris, said that the suspension of foreclosures ceased to apply from January 31 and a total of 45 days will have elapsed, when the new President will be able to decide whether to sign or refer back the law. He added that they are forced to proceed with a new suspension after waiting several months for relevant proposals to be discussed in the Finance Committee, which was not done. He also expressed the hope that moves would be made by the new Government.
Limassol MP Andreas Themistokleous supported the adoption of the bill in the form of urgency, expressing regret that 14 proposals related to the subject are pending in the Finance Committee. He said that in the meantime, until the proposals are discussed, there are many who will find themselves on the street.
On behalf of ELAM, MP Sotiris Ioannou also supported the urgency of the proposal, saying that almost two years have passed and the rent for instalment plan has yet to be approved, while new proposals by the Government will take months to implement. He added that "we don't have that many months" and that investment funds operate like predatory hawks.
After the rejection of the bill, DISY MP Onoufrios Koullas, justified the vote against by his party, saying that he is against any extension to the application of the suspension of foreclosures, something shared by both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.
Mr. Papadopoulos said that his party is not happy about the vote against the proposal, but said that the proposal of the Minister of Finance is to bring before the body in the coming days a comprehensive proposal in order to find the solutions demanded by the citizens.
Finally, Mr. Tryfonidis also appealed and expressed optimism that the Minister of Finance will bring a comprehensive solution to address the problem.
