A new survey has revealed that Cypriots are largely dissatisfied with the functioning of the country’s Public Service, believing the way forward is through a reduction of bureaucracy, better skills for the Public Servants who remain and more communication with citizens.
These are the findings of a Flash Eurobarometer survey on how European Union citizens perceive the support provided to member States through the European Commission’s Technical Support Instrument (TSI).
Cypriot citizens also called for better interaction with the public administration, as well as more user-friendly digital services.
Respondents expected the EU to help Cyprus conduct reforms through the TSI by providing financial and technical support.
In a separate question, Cypriots said reforms were primarily needed in education, public health and family, housing and social protection.
The top priority for citizens at the EU level was the reduction of bureaucracy, as in Cyprus. However, their second option was transparency about decisions and the use of public funds.
The Flash Eurobarometer survey was conducted between 3 and 18 April through phone interviews, a total of 25,631 respondents from the 27 EU Member States (504 from Cyprus) were interviewed.
Cypriots tended to be less satisfied with the functioning of their Public Service than the average EU citizen.
In particular, 67 per cent considered the bureaucracy was slow in providing services (47 per cent in the EU) and 38 per cent said that public administration is not close to the citizens (29 per cent in the EU).
At the same time, 38 per cent of Cypriots believed Public Servants are under-skilled, compared to 22 per cent in the EU.
Nicosia, 17 May 2023
