Filenews 6 February 2026 - by Ioanna Kyriakou
The Ministry of Transport, Justice and the Cyprus Police do not see in a positive light the possibility of announcing and publishing in advance the general areas where mobile cameras and radar devices will operate. This was announced by the competent ministries and the director of the Traffic Police, Haris Evripidou, during today's session of the Parliament's Transport Committee. In his introductory statement, DISY MP, Nikos Georgiou, who is also the rapporteur of this provision, stated that citizens consider the photo-labelling system a trap. He added that the purpose is to strengthen transparency and the relationship of trust between society and the Police.
The reservations expressed by the Ministry of Transport, and shared by both the Police and the Ministry of Justice, are two. The first concerns the fact that the program of the areas drawn up by the Police changes in dynamic time and, therefore, there is a risk that citizens are misled. In fact, the director of the Traffic Police explained that only today three changes were recorded in locations where mobile cameras would work. These changes, he clarified, arise due to the problems that occur in each location, such as road works, not finding a parking space, and so on. "There are 20 mobile cameras throughout Cyprus which work 8 hours a day and within those hours each camera will go to 4 different places," Mr. Evripidou stressed. At the same time, he underlined that complaints from vans are increased, in contrast to those of fixed cameras, because "people have not learned to slow down" and warned that the relaxation of the measure will not bring the desired results.
The second reservation concerns the safety of the operators as in the past there have been several cases of attacks against mobile cameras. " If the locations are announced, then we will give a boost to the criminal elements," a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport underlined. In addition, he spoke of an increase in the cost from the publication of the program as this is not covered by the contract signed with the contractor company. According to the Legal Service, such a possibility will lead to an increase in the budget and therefore a question of constitutionality will arise.
On behalf of the Cyprus Bar Association, Christos Karras expressed legal concerns in relation to the photo-marking system. As he said, in other European countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and France, the principle of "transparency yes, surprise no" is applied. "There must be knowledge of what measures are being taken to protect the public and where there is control, it must be predictable and not sudden." The Bar Association's recommendation is not to announce the exact points, but the general areas, in order to favour good administration and proportionality.
For their part, the MPs expressed their dissatisfaction with the way the photo-tagging system was managed, accusing the police of hiding and the competent services of cultivating a sense of injustice. "You have made the citizens your enemies, you are denouncing pensioners and day laborers, instead of those who are really breaking the law. You prioritize collectability and people feel that you are punishing," said Mr. Georgiou.
DIKO MP, Chrysanthos Savvidis, pointed out that the photo-marking system is problematic and sends the message of injustice. "I do not endorse many of the arguments heard today. We are reacting because the mobile cameras and the police officers with radars are hiding," he stressed.
AKEL MP, Costas Costa, said that "unemployed people, students and pensioners end up stepping on a line and paying €300. The law speaks of mandatory installation of signs, but in most cases it is not applied. There are black spots where people are killed and cameras are not placed there. We do not want citizens to break the law, but neither do we want to pass laws that are to their detriment."
In the meantime, it was confirmed before the Committee that the classification of out-of-court documents, voted by the Parliament in July 2024, will finally come into force from March 1, 2026, after the software upgrade, at an additional cost of €1,153,000 for the state.
A committee is set up for a photo-labelling system
In another development, the Minister of Transport, Communications and Works, Alexis Vafeadis, after the meeting of the Road Safety Council, which he chaired today, stated that a committee will be formed to evaluate the photo-marking system on the road network. The Minister of Transport stated that the committee "will study, evaluate all the data of its experience to date and will come back in March with suggestions".
He noted that "after 2-3 years of operation of this system, it is a good time to evaluate what went well and what did not go well. All these issues will be handled by this competent committee and they will come back and say, these are the things we can improve, these are the ones we can correct and these actions we can adopt."
