CYPRUS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
CCCI
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a private, non-profit organization established in 1927 to represent and support businesses in Cyprus.
ID: 3199368915-29
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Kerstin Jorna (Director-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) and
17 Dec 2025 · Tour d’horizon ahead of Cyprus Presidency
Meeting with Joao Onofre (Head of Unit Agriculture and Rural Development)
26 Sept 2025 · State of play of implementation of the Halloumi/Hellim PDO scheme in Cyprus
Meeting with Maria Luís Albuquerque (Commissioner) and
25 Sept 2025 · • SIU • Omnibus • Financial literacy strategy
Response to EU tourism strategy
12 Sept 2025
On behalf of the Tourism Committee of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCCI), we are pleased to submit the enclosed document outlining the views, challenges, and proposals identified by local stakeholders in response to the European Unions public consultation on the EU Strategy for Sustainable Tourism. The enclosed document captures the real challenges faced at the local level and demonstrates strong alignment with the EUs strategic priorities for sustainable tourism. We trust that the perspectives and proposals presented will contribute meaningfully to the development of targeted, flexible, and inclusive policies that support the sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience of the tourism sector, both in Cyprus and across the European Union.
Read full responseResponse to Single Market Strategy 2025
30 Jan 2025
We believe the strategy will help SMEs to some extent. However, without stronger enforcement, financial support, and industry-specific reforms, SMEs may still struggle with regulatory challenges and market access. While the strategy acknowledges the issues SMEs face, its success ultimately depends on effective implementation. The strategy aims to simplify regulations and create a more harmonized legal framework, reducing compliance costs and making it easier for SMEs to operate across borders. Removing trade and service restrictions will help SMEs expand into new markets, and faster recognition of professional qualifications can improve access to opportunities. Additionally, digitalization efforts could streamline administrative processes, lower operational costs, and enhance access to regulatory information, helping SMEs navigate market entry requirements. Stronger enforcement and governance will protect SMEs from unfair competition and regulatory inconsistencies while ensuring their voices are heard in policy decisions. However, significant challenges remain. The strategy's success depends on Member States' commitment to enforcement, more direct financial support for SMEs to grow and compete, and the simplification of procedures (reducing bureaucracy) related to certification and access to funding. Administrative requirements are often designed for larger companies with bigger and more qualified workforces, which makes it harder for SMEs to navigate. While the strategy is a step in the right direction, without stronger enforcement, financial support, and targeted reforms, SMEs may not fully benefit from it.
Read full responseMeeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and
2 Feb 2024 · Labour market and social developments, social dialogue, right to disconnect and telework.
Response to Promoting sustainability in consumer after-sales
30 Jan 2022
In our opinion the main points and arguments on repairability can be summarized as follows:
• Repairability is product specific, and can even vary within a product category. no one-size-fits all approach.
• Legal guarantee, minimum 2 years, only conformity, most defects occur within the first 6 months (71 %) and within the first year (87%)
• Trader best to assess best remedy
• Consumers usually want a replacement
• Ecodesign Directive under review -> best place to address this issue
• Replacement sometimes more sustainable than repair
• Level playing field 3rd countries
• 1/3 products discarded by consumers while still working (German study)
• Potential lifespan product may often be misleading, depends on use
• Planned premature obsolescence is the problem (although there is very limited evidence this really happens)
• Longer product lifetimes seem better, but sometimes replacement of inefficient products is more sustainable
• A one-size-fits-all horizontal approach to product lifetime is unlikely to be appropriate – different approaches are suitable to different products at different times.
A one-size-fits-all horizontal approach is definitely not appropriate and of course different approaches are suitable to different products at different times. To this we can add that the fast pace of technological developments induces many consumers to replace products even if the existing product is still functioning quite well based on its technical specifications. IT products and mobile phones are very appropriate examples and this has been our experience in Cyprus over the last years.
We therefore find it difficult to see how the Parliament can easily assess the production of goods that can easily be repaired and even more so the inducement of the consumers to choose repair instead of replacement. From our experience consumers will in most cases choose replacement instead of repair if they have the right to choose. There is a number of studies that substantiate our arguments, namely:
- A study by the German Federal Environment Agency concluded (p. 217ff) that using guarantee law (including longer periods) to exert pressure on dealers/manufacturers in the direction of longer service life as "structurally unsuitable, inefficient and accompanied by serious fairness and sustainability deficiencies" https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/378/publikationen/texte_72_2015_staerkung_eines_nachhaltigen_konsums_im_bereich_produktnutzung_0.pdf
- Repairability is product specific, and can even vary within a product category. There is no one size fits all approach as suggested in the draft report. This is in line with EP IMCO study https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/study-promoting-product-longevity-/product-details/20200417CAN54506 from April 2020 that seems to direct towards different types of feasible solutions than the Cormand draft report. The Ecodesign Directive is better placed to deal with some of the issues, providing already some precedent for certain products.
- Furthermore, a study of the German Environment Agency revealed that one third of products are discarded by consumers while still working. Instead of intrusive measures via contract law, non-regulatory means like for example the promotion of consumer awareness campaigns are needed.
We therefore feel that no policy change is required. If nevertheless we have to choose an option this would be the first one, i.e the “low intervention” option.
Read full responseResponse to Social and labour aspects of the climate transition
14 Nov 2021
The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry is fully aligned with the position of Eurochambers. Skills shortages will be a major issue and ways will need to be found to address this and the transition in general, particularly in the case of SMEs through financial and other assistance.
Read full responseMeeting with Stella Kyriakides (Commissioner)
29 Oct 2021 · Meeting with representatives of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry
23 May 2020
MAKES SENSE FOR THE REGULATION TO BE PROLONGED AS THIS WILL ALLOW TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION OF THE SGEI DE MINIMIS REGULATION AS WELL AS THE EVALUATION OF THE GENERAL DE MINIMIS REGULATION SO THAT A MORE INFORMED DECISION CAN BE TAKEN.
Read full responseResponse to A new Circular Economy Action Plan
14 Jan 2020
Initiatives such as the New Circular Economy Action Plan that contribute to EU’s sustainable development are always welcome. The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry therefore welcomes the new action plan. Considering however that SMEs are the backbone of EU’s economy (and much more so, the Cyprus economy), the plan should support SMEs' participation since they are crucial to the successful implementation of the circular economy in the EU.
Apart from measures such as information, technical assistance, better access to finance, upskilling and reskilling of workers that are directed to SMEs themselves, special emphasis should be given to capacity building for SME representative organisations, so that they can act as facilitators and promoters of the concept of circularity (throughout the supply chain) to SMEs.
We also have serious concerns about the sustainable product policy mentioned in the roadmap and the information that needs to be provided on products' sustainability features We fear that this will impact adversely on the production of such products by SMEs as it will lead to an increase of costs and red tape to manufacture new products based on minimum requirements.
In this direction, SMEs should be provided with friendly tools and freely accessible databases with LCA analysis for different product groups in order to cut costs and bureaucracy and simplify procedures for SMEs.
Lastly, we want to stress that new legislation and measures in this area, should always be developed in cooperation with industry's and SMEs' representatives and in a balanced manner so that the objectives are achieved without the victimization of SMEs.
Read full responseResponse to Initiative to improve the Food Supply Chain
19 May 2018
Generally we welcome the proposal for a European legal framework to protect SMEs against unfair commercial practices. It is urgently necessary to strengthen the negotiating position of SMEs in the retail market so that they can continue to compete on fair terms.
However, we note that the scope of the proposed directive is so narrow that it will bring little noticeable improvement to food service businesses. So at least an extension of the application area would be necessary to all types and sizes of SMEs of the food trade.
The directive's exclusive applicability to agreements between SMEs and non-SMEs should also be reconsidered. In order to sustainably improve competitiveness throughout the chain, the Directive should apply to all contractual relationships.
Regarding the articles of the draft directive:
Article 1 Subject matter and scope
As already mentioned, the scope of the current draft document seems too limiting and should be extended to all types and sizes of SMEs.
Article 3 Prohibition of unfair trading practices
The list of 8 unfair trading practices should be enlarged with the following item:
• “Threat (regardless of whether explicit or hidden) regarding the discontinuation of listed products if claims for price reductions are not met.”
Article 4 Designated enforcement authority
The competencies and functioning of the authority should be clarified
Article 5 Complaints and confidentiality
The confidentiality rule is crucial in this case as the complainant is already in a weaker position and could risk losing commercial transitions and contracts.
Article 6 Powers of the enforcement authority
The enforcement authority should actually check companies' behavior and adopt discouraging measures, in order to avoid unfair practices and, at the same time, punish with heavy fines the companies conducting incorrectly.
Article 11 Evaluation
Evaluation of the system and functioning seems indeed a valuable procure and should be considered to be introduced earlier than the three years gap time.
Read full responseMeeting with Andrus Ansip (Vice-President) and
26 Jan 2017 · Digital Single Market, role of digitalisation for the economy