Better Regulation Practices across the European Union 2025

Cyprus

Overview

Cyprus’ regulatory policy system has largely remained stable, with some improvements to consultation practices. In 2023, the government launched an interactive online platform for all consultations on regulatory initiatives: e-consultation.gov.cy. The platform also includes a publicly accessible report of comments and whether they were accepted. Written guidance, updated in January 2024, details steps of the consultation process and requires a minimum four weeks of open consultation on all primary laws. Though not required, consultation is also undertaken in practice for some draft subordinate regulations. Stakeholders are not, however, consulted prior to a regulation being drafted to gather and compare different options.

Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is required for all primary laws and is also undertaken in practice for some subordinate regulations. The RIA framework introduced in 2017 requires identifying and assessing multiple options, both regulatory and non-regulatory, on the basis of a range of social and economic impacts. It also requires quantifying costs and benefits for the different options. Key gaps that remain include risk assessment and early consideration of how policymakers will measure the progress of a regulation post‑implementation. Cyprus has no system for ex post evaluation to verify if rules achieve their objectives in practice. However, successive government action plans have identified the simplification of existing rules and legal procedures as a priority, and the Law Commissioner carries out simplification and revision of national legislation on an ad hoc basis.

While there is no single institution responsible for overall regulatory oversight in Cyprus, the SME Envoy checks for adequate consultation with the business community. The Envoy also performs quality control of the SME test (which assesses the potential impact of regulations on small and medium‑ enterprises), issuing an opinion on the quality and mitigation measures as needed. The Law Commissioner, appointed by the President of the Republic, advises the President and the Ministers on any issue concerning the law, its modernisation, consolidation, amendment and reform.

In focus: Recent developments and next steps

Building on the recent establishment of a central online consultation platform, Cyprus could undertake public consultations earlier, before a decision to regulate is made. This could enhance the evidence base to help identify potential impacts and to consider multiple options, including alternatives to regulation.

Cyprus also has an opportunity to improve the evidence base and transparency of new rules by extending requirements to conduct RIA and stakeholder engagement to cover subordinate regulations with significant impacts too. Additionally, establishing explicit and systematic requirements and procedures for ex post evaluation would help Cyprus to ensure that rules are delivering results, and that the regulatory stock is effective and efficient, avoiding unnecessary burdens.

Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG): Cyprus

Note: The more regulatory practices as advocated in the OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance a country has implemented, the higher its iREG score. The indicators on stakeholder engagement and RIA for primary laws only cover those initiated by the executive (55% of all primary laws in Cyprus). Transparency is one of the four dimensions that underpin each of the composite indicators on stakeholder engagement, RIA and ex post evaluation. The transparency score presents the aggregate of that dimension across the three indicators. More information can be found in the Reader’s Guide.

Source: OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG).

Cyprus: Regulating for…

People	Identify likely distributional effects when designing rules
	Assess impacts on different age groups when designing rules
	Assess impacts on social groups when designing rules
	Provide mechanisms for the public to give feedback on existing rules ▲
Planet	Assess impacts on the environment when designing rules
	Assess the social costs of carbon emissions when designing rules
	Assess the social costs of carbon emissions when reviewing rules
	Focus on environmental sustainability when reviewing rules ▲
Future	Address innovation-related challenges when designing rules, e.g. with increased agility or flexibility ▲
	Co-ordinate cross-government to identify regulatory issues related to innovation ▲
	Use data-driven approaches to monitor the impacts of rules ▲
	Address innovation-related challenges when reviewing rules ▲
Effectiveness	Identify a process for assessing progress in achieving regulatory goals
	Base inspection and enforcement activities on risk criteria ■
	Have regulation or policy on risk-based inspections ▲
	Identify unintended consequences of rules

All primary laws/ ▲ Yes ■ Required ● Yes, there is a regulation and a policy

Major primary laws/ ● Yes, there is a regulation

Some primary laws/ ■ Not required but allowed ● Yes, there is a policy

Never/ ▲ No ■ Not allowed

Note: The data reflects Cyprus practices regarding primary laws initiated by the executive.

Source: OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG) 2024.