Marina Glykis-Hadjimanolis appointed | Seatrade Maritime

Maria Glykis Hadjimanolis
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Incoming Cyprus president, Nikos Christodoulides indicated the importance he places on shipping with the appointment of one of his closest aides to head up the island’s shipping ministry.

Marina Glykis-Hadjimanolis-elect, a Limassol city councilor and lawyer, headed Christodoulides’ political office during the election campaign.

Christodoulides, 49, was officially sworn in as the eighth President of the Republic of Cyprus in a brief ceremony in the House of Representatives on February 28. Christodoulides vowed to work with Parliament and MPs “for the good of the country”. He said his “respect for the Constitution and the laws made under it, and safeguarding the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus” were among his priorities.

The 11 male and six female ministers and deputy ministers were sworn in during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace on March 1.

The appointment of Glykis-Hadjimanolis, born in 1973, as head of the Cyprus Deputy Maritime Ministry is taken as a sign that shipping will continue to have a direct line with the country’s President, although the Deputy Minister has had little direct involvement in shipping in the past by contrast to her popular predecessor in the ministry, Vassilis Demetriades, who was a veteran shipping politician at the European Commission.

Shipping has played an important role in the Cypriot economy in recent decades, culminating five years ago in the establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Shipping as a separate independent ministry to handle maritime affairs more quickly and efficiently.

Cyprus is the EU’s third largest register and has long been a traditional offshore center for Russian companies. Though the deputy shipping ministry led by Demetriades earned much praise, over the past year Demetriades has had to defend Cypriot shipping interests amid an onslaught of European Union sanctions against Russia, prompting scores of ships and Russian companies to flee the eastern Mediterranean country.

Despite this, the country backed EU sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, while Demetriades has advocated for the sanctions to be worded to protect essential shipping interests and has repeatedly called for the EU to take additional measures to protect and encourage them to seize the EU flags.

Source: News Network

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