Institute wages House battle for married parents

Immigration experts in the Republic of Cyprus are proposing a €50,000 house bonus for newlyweds, with an additional annual stipend for each child born in wedlock as well as legal avenues for adopting healthy foreign babies.

According to local media, the Institute of Demographic and Immigration Policy of Cyprus has sent a letter to the Census ad hoc committee in the parliament with eleven recommendations to address low fertility in the country.

The Institute, which was created in late 2013 to address issues such as migration, ethnicity, and Turkish influence on the island, met with President Nikos Christodoulides earlier this month while it also sent a letter to the parliament, where the census committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday.

One of the recommendations was reportedly a proposal to use funds from the European Commission’s Recovery and Resilience Facility to award married couples at least €50,000 as a financial incentive where contractors working with the state would build homes for the newlyweds.

The institute says it could be possible to get the EU money if Cyprus included a housing budget, while an additional annual bonus has also been proposed for each child until they turn 18.

“This will urge and encourage young couples to have more than one child,” the experts said.

The institute has also suggested other recommendations such as free clinic services for infertile couples, tax incentives for married persons, as well as “interstate recourse for legal adoption of healthy children, something which does not take place currently.”

Two weeks ago the executive branch said thousands of families receiving state benefits for having three or more children were to expect an additional one-time wire transfer just in time for summer.