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Commission President arrives in Cyprus for two-day visit

07/07/2021 14:17

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen arrives in Cyprus on Wednesday for an official visit during which she will inform the government on the evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan – RRP.

The Commission President will hold a bilateral meeting with President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades and then she will officially present the evaluation.

She will be welcomed at Larnaca airport by Minister of Energy, Commerce, and Industry Natasa Pilidis.

Von der Leyen and President Anastasiades will visit Wednesday evening the Cultural Center of the village of Ora where accompanied by her entourage will meet with a group of Firefighters and members of The Disaster Response Special Unit (D.R.S.U) who participated in the operations against the disastrous fire of last weekend in the mountainous area of Limassol and Larnaca.

On Thursday morning she will discuss with President Anastasiades the recent fires, the situation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic on the island and the Cyprus problem.

Together with the President, she will pay a visit to “KIOS” Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence of the University of Cyprus. During her visit to the Center for Excellence "Kios", the President of the European Commission will have the opportunity to talk to young researchers and to be briefed about the pioneering research carried out at the Center, on intelligent systems and networks, contributing to the goals of the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan, such as green growth and digital transformation. The two will then answer questions.

The ceremony for the presentation of the Commission’s approval of the Cyprus Plan will follow as well as press conference by von der Leyen and Anastasiades.

Von der Leyen will have the chance to see the Turkish-occupied area of Nicosia from the Library’s third floor.

Following her visit to the University, the Commission President will depart for Zagreb.

The Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan reflects the integrated, ambitious and at the same time realistic plan of the Republic of Cyprus, for the effective utilisation of €1,2 bln to be allocated to Cyprus for the period 2021-2026, by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. The strategic objective of the RRP is “to strengthen the economy’s resilience and the country’s potential for economically, socially and environmentally sustainable long-term growth and welfare”. The RRP has been developed around five policy axes, namely (1) Public health, civil protection and lessons learned from the pandemic, (2) Accelerated transition to a green economy, (3) Strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of the economy, (4) Towards a digital era and (5) Labour market, social protection, education and human capital.