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Reform Support
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© EU

Supporting reforms to reinforce efficient and high quality public administrations

Funding Programme
Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP)
Year
2019

Modernising the Civil Procedure Rules in Cyprus

The European Commission has supported the Supreme Court of Cyprus to modernise the civil procedure rules through a sequenced project starting with a detailed review of the old Cypriot civil procedure rules against modern and more efficient approaches, followed by a public consultation on the areas of intervention and concluded by a joint drafting of the new rules by international experts and national stakeholders.

Context

Since 2016, the Cypriot authorities and more specifically the Supreme Court of Cyprus, have been implementing a significant, multi-faceted and complex reform of the court system. In this context, the Supreme Court of Cyprus highlighted the need to modernise the civil procedure rules, which have been in place for over 60 years and were out-dated, despite three attempts to modernise them.

According to the EU Justice score-board Cyprus has been repeatedly encouraged over the past number of years to significantly improve its performance in terms of length of court proceedings and level of backlogs in litigious civil and commercial cases. The modernisation of the rules should support this improvement.

Support delivered

The Commission provided support in two consecutive phases mobilising different groups of experts to advise and assist the Supreme Court in this endeavour.

The cooperation consisted of:

  • Review the old Cypriot civil procedure rules against modern and more efficient approaches;
  • Organise public consultation on the areas of intervention;
  • Draft the new rules;
  • Organise joint design and approval processes of the new rules by the national stakeholders (judges, lawyers, court registrars) through targeted communication activities.

Results achieved

The support led to the approval of the new Civil Procedure Rules by the Supreme Court of Cyprus on May 19th, 2021. The Commission continues cooperating with the Cypriot authorities in preparing the ground for implementation through training activities to all key stakeholders (judges, lawyers, court registrars). The implementation of the new rules will contribute to a fairer and more efficient justice system, which will contribute to strengthening the rule of law in Cyprus and speeding-up justice, ensuring favourable investment conditions and sustainability of growth.

Project in the spotlight

Find out more about the project here.

Video subtitled in Greek