New government appointees attend ceremony to assume their duties

The confirmation ceremony of the new ministers, deputy ministers and commissioners is underway at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday in the presence of President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides.

Following the president’s decision to proceed with a partial government reshuffle, it was announced on Monday that Vassilis Palmas was appointed as the new Minister of Defense, Maria Panayiotou as Minister of Justice and Public Order, Marios Hartsiotis as Minister of Health, Michalis Damianos as Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Nikodimos Damianos as Deputy Minister of Innovation, Research and Digital Policy, and Marilena Rauna as Deputy Minister of European Affairs.

Panayiotis Palates is also being appointed as Citizens’ Commissioner, Charalambos Christofinas as Mountain Areas Commissioner and Antonia Theodosiou as Environment Commissioner.

The handover of the ministries has been announced to take place at 10.30am a.m. while the ceremonies will take place at the Ministry of Defense at 11.15am, at the Ministry of Agriculture at 12pm, at the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, at 12.45pm at the Ministry of Health, at the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy at 1.30pm, while the ceremony for new Environment Commissioner will take place at 2.15pm.