The House Education and Culture Committee decided on Wednesday to examine reported dysfunction at the Deputy Ministry of Culture as a separate item, at a session where an AKEL parliament member accused the deputy ministry’s Director General of overstepping his duties and using intimidation.
The committee intends to call those involved back to parliament. The session, new Deputy Minister of Culture Clea Papaellina’s first with the committee, also covered delays to the new Cyprus Archaeological Museum and plans for a new Cyprus Library building.
Dysfunction claims
AKEL parliament member Christos Christofides told the committee of serious dysfunction and a series of incidents that, in his view, amounted to overstepping of duties, interfering in other officials’ work and intimidation. The situation, he said, had led staff to stage a work stoppage and artists to protest and collect signatures.
The civil servants’ union PASYDY has recorded a series of incidents since December 2025, which it says were reported to the Finance Ministry, the Treasury and the deputy ministry’s political leadership.
Among the incidents Christofides raised were letters of reprimand sent to Cyprus Library librarians after they published an open letter about problems with the library’s building, and an intervention concerning cultural events of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU. According to information presented to the committee, the letters were prepared for the librarians’ personal files at the Director General’s initiative.
Christofides also questioned the Director General’s involvement in activities outside his remit that were, he argued, better suited to an artistic director. In the session and in statements afterwards, he said the Director General should confine himself to his administrative role and leave artistic matters to the officials responsible, warning that the deputy ministry risked becoming a “one-man show”.
Director General Giorgos Papageorgiou rejected claims that he acts as an “artistic director”, telling the committee that his contacts and trips abroad were part of administrative assignments and market research. “I’ve had my fill of artistic director duties,” he said. He added that changes to funding procedures followed Audit Office recommendations on transparency, objective criteria and avoiding conflicts of interest.
Christofides described acknowledging the problem as a positive first step, but said what would count was the outcome of the dialogue, and that he expected results from the new Deputy Minister, not just talks. “An end to arbitrariness, an end to intimidation and favouritism,” he said, adding that roles at the deputy ministry must be clarified.
Archaeological museum
The new contractual completion date for construction of the new Cyprus Archaeological Museum is February 3, 2027, but the building is not expected to be handed over before the end of October 2028, according to figures presented to the committee.
About 18 months will then be needed to move, arrange and install the exhibits, pushing full operation back to 2029-2030. Committee chairman Chrysanthos Savvides gave his own estimate that, even if the building were finished earlier, 2030 was when the museum could realistically welcome visitors.
The session also heard concerns that the museum could be inaugurated for publicity reasons ahead of the presidential elections, as early as the end of 2027, when the project as a whole would not be substantially complete.
The question of the amphitheatre also remains open. Its construction was moved to the project’s second phase because of a lack of funds, although the session heard that it is an integral part of how the museum operates. Papaellina said the issue was being re-examined with the Finance Ministry.
Cyprus Library
Savvides described the Cyprus Library’s current building as “in a dreadful state”. The original plan was for a new building on a plot behind the Interior Ministry, at an estimated cost of 30 to 32 million euros. The Finance Ministry refused to approve it and the money was not included in the 2027-2029 budgets, so the deputy ministry is now looking at cheaper options.
These include using and renovating existing buildings in Eleftheria Square and Faneromeni. For Faneromeni, an agreement with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has moved forward, with the aim of at least the library’s core operating in decent conditions. The deputy ministry is also looking, with the Interior Ministry, at using other public buildings.
Deputy Minister’s response
Speaking after the session, Papaellina called the discussion “substantive and productive”. “We are on the right track and I am sure we will find a solution,” she said.
Artists’ status bill
DISY parliament member Prodromos Alambritis said after the session that a key priority was for the bill on the status of artists to finally be tabled in parliament. He described it as a bill “we have been waiting for for quite some time” and noted the commitment to table it in the autumn.
He had been told the deputy ministry was holding consultations, he said, but these must lead to the bill being tabled because “the cultural world is worried and we have a duty to reassure it”.
Alambritis also pointed to Larnaca 2030 as an opportunity for the city to raise its cultural profile. He said he had been briefed that the agreed financial framework was being kept, including 10 million euros in support for Larnaca, and that consultations were under way to set milestones. He also called for an increase in the deputy ministry’s budget so that it meets the needs of people in the cultural world.
