The judges nominated by Cyprus for ECtHR met the criteria, MFA spokesperson says

The judges nominated by the Republic of Cyprus for the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) met the criteria set for their inclusion in the proposed list, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Theodoros Gotsis, has said.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) noted that the government will wait for the official written notification for the result of the interview process, “which will then be duly answered,” while “to the extent required, the revised proposal of the Republic of Cyprus for the continuation of the process in question will be sent”.

Asked by CNA about the recommendation on 25 September by the competent Parliamentary Committee of the Council of Europe (CoE) for the rejection of the list of candidate judges for the ECtHR submitted by Cyprus, Gotsis noted that the procedure followed by the competent Committee of the Republic of Cyprus on the subject has been assessed as appropriate by the Committee of Experts set up by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to examine both the procedure and the related applications.

“The same applies to the list of nominated candidates who, according to the Committee of Experts, met the criteria set for their inclusion in the relevant proposed list”, he said. Gotsis noted that this applies to all three candidates who had been nominated, while the competent authorities were also informed in writing in a relevant letter dated 5 July, 2024.

Further explaining the procedure followed in such cases, Gotsis said that after the stage of interviews before the competent committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, this committee submits its recommendation to the Assembly. At the interview stage, for each member state, there is the possibility that one or some of the candidates will not satisfy the committee, he added.

“This, in no way reflects on the procedure followed by the member state, nor on the qualifications of the candidates, which another special committee has already examined and evaluated before proceeding to the interview stage,” he added.

(Source: CNA)