Cypriots want less bureaucracy, better e-services

Cypriots are dissatisfied with the functioning of the country’s public administration and want reduced bureaucracy, skilled civil servants, and more communication, according to a flash Eurobarometer survey.

Cypriots also called for better interaction with state officials and more user-friendly digital services.

Respondents expect the EU to help Cyprus to conduct reforms by providing financial and technical support.

Cypriots said reforms are needed in education, public health, housing, and social protection.

Bureaucracy

Cypriots tend to be less satisfied with the functioning of the public administration than the average EU citizen.

Some 67% consider that public administration is slow in providing services (47% in the EU), and 38% said it is not close to the citizens (29% in the EU).

At the same time, 38% of Cypriots believe that public administration employees are under-skilled, compared to 22% in the EU.

To increase trust in public administration, the top three solutions chosen by Cypriots were reducing bureaucracy (62%, 52% in the EU), better skilled civil servants (48%, 30% in the EU) and more communication with citizens (43%, 31% in the EU).

The top priority for citizens on 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 (44% in the EU, 37% in Cyprus). The third option was, as in Cyprus, more communication with citizens.

For improving interaction with public administration, 63% of Cypriots (35% in the EU) asked for increased user-friendliness of digital services, 57% (the highest percentage in the EU) believe there should be more channels to contact the administration directly, and 45% (46% in the EU) want clearer information about procedures.

Also, compared to the EU average, more Cypriots underlined the need for more digital services (43% vs 31%) and creating a central contact point for all requests to the administration (43% vs 33%).

Education, health and social protection

Cypriots and EU citizens more broadly believe that reforms are needed to improve institutions, structures or public services in education, public health, and social protection.

Asked to pick three priority areas, 52% of

Cypriots chose education (50% in the EU), 52% public health (56% in the EU) and 48% chose family, housing, and social protection (35% in the EU).

The health sector was a top priority in several EU countries, with 60% or more respondents selecting this answer in 11 out of 27 Member States.

Also, high up on the priorities of Cypriot citizens were migration (37% in Cyprus, 15% in the EU), green transition and energy supply (28% in Cyprus, 25% in the EU) and employment and working conditions (20% in Cyprus, 25% in the EU).

Following with smaller percentages were the financial sector (19% in Cyprus, 10% in the EU), the digitisation of public services (15% in Cyprus, 15% in the EU), business support (11% in Cyprus, 17% in the EU) and the functioning of public institutions (7% in Cyprus, 15% in the EU).