Framework of Principles and Strategic Objectives
Since its establishment, OPEK has set as its primary goal to contribute to the progress and development of public life in Cyprus. This objective remains relevant and urgent today.
Α
The membership in the EU stands as the most significant element and incentive in advancing our society. This isn’t a result of a “Eurocentric bias” but rather a rational evaluation. A deliberate commitment to European humanism, principles, processes, and the ethos of the EU contributes, among other things, to recognizing the following pivotal aspect: Neglecting any sector of public life, when addressing the necessity for modernization, will eventually reveal its adverse impacts on other domains.
Β
The modernization process must be tackled comprehensively and inclusively. For example, expecting economic growth without concurrently establishing institutional goals and means for development, coupled with the simultaneous enhancement of other sectors, is unrealistic. Economic development within an environment characterized by political system clientelism, lack of transparency, incompetence, and corruption results in slow and fundamentally distorted growth. Ultimately, this approach will either lead to a collapse or, in the best-case scenario, result in an impasse.
C
The perspective of modernization is not a opportunistic declaration. It is a continuous process where objectives are intricately linked to both strategies and the practices followed. If declarations and strategic goals exude “modernization,” while everyday choices and practices – at any level – reflect conservatism, automatically those declarations and strategic goals are nullified, becoming void of substance.
D
Dialogue, consensus, rationality, and documentation are indispensable prerequisites for any modernization effort. Simultaneously, and intertwined with these, is the continual reference to the regional and international context, the effort to liberate thinking and planning from the microcosm of Cypriot society, and the pitfalls of communal insularity.
Ε
As a result of the above, the following emerge:
(1) The achievement of social, political, and economic progress is impossible without the assimilation of European methodologies and values. Merely invoking EU membership when seeking advantages in the Cyprus issue or economic benefits does not genuinely make us EU members. While some EU countries, especially in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, also face difficulties in assimilating EU membership, the daily European orientation is an uncompromising requirement for progress in any sector for Cyprus, given its size, geographic location, and the Cyprus issue.
(2) Transforming Cyprus into a modern and “normal” state, as recent official rhetoric suggests, is inconceivable without the definitive and complete separation of state and church. A modern European state necessarily implies a secular state. The strong involvement of the church in state affairs, whether informal (e.g., appointments, including ministers and high-ranking state officials) or institutionalized (e.g., in education), is a relic of past centuries, entirely incompatible with the Enlightenment and modern European humanism.
(3) The modernization of Cyprus and the prospect of reunification based on the Bizonal Bicommunal Federation cannot be separated from the use of rationality. Using “modernizing” discourse when addressing issues like corruption or the clientelist party system becomes invalid and unreliable if, at the same time, we choose traditional, stereotypical, xenophobic, and conspiratorial discourse in the Cyprus issue.
