Country data: Cyprus

All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

The last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged.

 

Transposition deficit (percentage of all directives not transposed): 1.8% (last report: 1.9%) – a decrease of 0.1 percentage points. Cyprus is one of the six Member States that managed to reduce their deficit in the reporting period.        
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

Cyprus’ performance on this criterion has been uneven. After achieving the 1% objective set by the European Council in December 2019, Cyprus was at almost double the target in December 2020 and December 2021. In addition, it did not transpose 12 of the 26 single market directives (46%) due to have been transposed in the 6 months before the cut-off date for calculating the deficit (1 June to 30 November 2021). This shows that Cyprus may have some difficulties organising the timely transposition of the directives, although with a moderate delay (see below). Constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not help. However, transposition is an ongoing process and any let-up may result in the deficit quickly increasing.

Overdue directives: 18 (last report: 20), including 4 on transport and 4 in connectivity/media/digital society. No directive is more than 2 years overdue.

Average delay in transposing directives: 5 months (last report: 6.7 months) – a decrease of 1.7 months. Cyprus is one of nine Member States that reduced their delay in transposing directives in the reporting period.   
EU average = 8.6 months

Cyprus is the Member State with the fifth lowest average delay. Most of its outstanding directives (12 out of 18) have been due for less than 6 months.

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 1% (last report: 1.1%) – a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage points. Cyprus’ deficit is below the EU average.  
EU average = 1.3%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings that the Commission has launched against Member States for incorrectly transposing single market directives has more than halved in 2 years. Nevertheless, the number of ongoing cases is still high. With 10 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, Cyprus is among the 9 Member States with the lowest conformity deficit (1% or less).

Evolution of transposition deficit

 

Evolution of conformity deficit

 

All comparisons are with the figures for 1 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

 

Pending single market cases: 23 (5 new cases and 5 cases closed; last report: 23 pending cases) – a stable number of cases compared to last year. As a result, Cyprus is below the EU average. 
EU average = 27 cases

Cyprus managed to stop the upward trend (starting in November 2014) in the number of infringement cases launched against it. However, it is no longer in the top ten Member States with the lowest number of pending cases.

The Commission launched 120 new cases against Member States in the reporting period (besides those for late transposition), and these were still pending on 1 December 2021. A total of 5 cases were launched against Cyprus, which is above the EU average of 4 new cases launched in a year. In addition, 5 Cypriot cases have been resolved since December 2020, which is less than the EU average (8).

Problematic sectors: the environment (6 cases); transport (6 cases), in particular air transport (3); services and professions (4 cases). Together, these make up 70% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 36.8 months for the 21 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 29 months) – a marked increase of 7.8 months. This is the longest average case duration ever for Cyprus, but still below the EU average. 
EU average = 42.8 months

The average case duration of Cypriot cases has significantly increased in the last 3 years (+44%). Although Cyprus is no longer one of the Member States with the lowest average case duration, it performs constantly well on this indicator and has been below the EU average case duration since its accession to the EU. It has 4 pending cases that have been running for between 6 and 11 years. Their long average duration is offset by 5 recent cases whose average duration is less than 12 months.

Time taken to comply with Court rulings: 22.5 months for the only single market case at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure and closed in the last 5 years (last report: same). 
EU average = 46.8 months

No change since the previous period. Cyprus has a single case on pension rights that took 22.5 months to comply.

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – Cyprus’ performance was excellent

• Results for four indicators were among the top six results in the EEA.
• Cyprus had impeccable performance for requests replied to within the deadline (100%) and the answering speed was excellent, the third fastest of all countries.
• Counterparts’ satisfaction with efforts made declined significantly.

• Caseload – large
  Submitted cases: 10 (15 in 2020)
  Received cases: 257 (101 in 2020)

• Cases not accepted: 22 (13 in 2020)

• Resolution rate: 98% (95% in 2020)
• Handling time (as home centre)
  Reply in 7 days: 75% (98% in 2020) –  good
  Cases prepared in 30 days: 100% (91% in 2020) –very good
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 50% (81% in 2020) – poor

• Cases not accepted within 30 days: 91% (70% in 2020) – very good

• Handling time (as lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days:  96% (95% in 2020) –very good
  Cases closed in 10 weeks:  88% (90% in 2020) – good
• Staffing level
  Sufficient

No data available.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	4.2	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	85.8%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	n/a days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	1.5 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	39.7%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	23%	25%
No calls for bids	28%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	3.8%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	5%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	91%	64%
Decision speed (days)	135	99
SME contractors	80%	61%
SME bids	81%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	22%	31%
Missing calls for bids	1%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	42%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	38%	11%

Note: A typical (mid-ranking) EU country is used for the EU average for all indicators except the publication rate. Due to delays in data availability, publication rate results are based on 2020 data.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Restrictiveness indicator – architect	2.7	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	0.0	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	2.7	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	3.8	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	3.7	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	3.8	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	1.4	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.41	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.64	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	94.2%	84.2%

Note: The EU restrictiveness indicator (EURI) measures the level of restrictiveness for the cross-border provision of services and the right of establishment for seven groups of professional services with a high share in EU firms’ intermediate consumption or cross-border mobility. The level of restrictiveness is measured on a scale from 0 (least restrictive) to 6 (most restrictive). 

Indicator	2021	EU average
Access to public financial support (% of SMEs indicating deterioration)	15.8%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	n/a days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	0.15%	0.48%