Cyprus

Turkey is about to start offshore drilling with two vessels around the island of Cyprus, Turkish foreign minister said on Feb. 21.

Turkey criticized on Thursday as "unacceptable" a vote by the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee calling for the suspension of EU accession negotiations with it.

Cyprus' Orthodox Church says it supports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's right to independence that was granted by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople last month, aiming to heal its divisions.
The Holy Synod also said Wednesday, however, that Patriarch Bartholomew should take into account the "sensitivities" of Russians whose roots in the faith are found in Ukraine.

Cyprus is urging the European Union to speed up the process granting full name protection to halloumi cheese, the east Mediterranean island nation's top culinary export.
Cyprus government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou told The Associated Press on Wednesday that authorities are pressing the European Commission to speed things up.

Government bond yields in Cyprus tumbled on Wednesday and stood out as the star performer in eurozone debt markets, a day after a 15-year bond sale drew solid demand in a further sign of progress for a country that exited its bailout in 2016.

France and Cyprus took full advantage of a market supercharged by expectations of more monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank to print syndicated bonds on Tuesday.

France had garnered a maximum of 33.5 billion euros of demand for a 7-billion-euro 30-year bond sale, a lead manager told Reuters, before pricing the deal at seven basis points over its outstanding 2048 bonds.

World-renowned professor of economics Jeffrey Sachs is in Cyprus to deliver the 2019 Hubert Curien Memorial Lecture at the Cyprus Institute. The lecture starts at 6.30 p.m. and live streaming will be available on the Cyprus Institute's YouTube channel. The title of the lecture is "Eudaimonia in the 21st Century: Looking to Aristotle for New Solutions."

Romania's Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu attended a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in Brussels on Monday that discussed current foreign policy affairs such as Ukraine, Syria, the Horn of Africa and Venezuela.

Cyprus is expected to issue its first ever 15-year government bond at a rate between 2.90 percent - 3.00 percent.

The Finance Ministry expects the Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) to attract 1 billion euros.

Although the coupon rate is relatively high compared to other EU countries; the move shows a significant vote of confidence in the long term trajectory of the Cypriot economy

MONDAY