According to the findings of the recent Eurobarometer survey on how EU citizens perceive the support provided to member states through the European Commission’s Technical Support Instrument (TSI), Cypriots appear largely dissatisfied with the functioning of their country's public administration.

According to the survey, they believe that reducing bureaucracy, improving civil servants' skills and advancing communication with citizens are essential, if public administration aims to move forward. Cypriots also demand more user-friendly digital services.

Respondents expect the EU to provide financial and technical support to help Cyprus conduct reforms through the TSI. In a separate question, Cypriots stated that reforms are primarily needed in education, public health and social protection.

The Eurobarometer survey was conducted through phone interviews between 3 April and 18 April and included 25,631 respondents from the 27 EU Member States (504 from Cyprus).

As noted in a press release, through TSI, the EU provides expertise and technical support, enables and fosters information exchange among member states and upgrades public administration’s operational and digital capacities.

Cyprus’ citizens appear to be less satisfied with the functioning of the public administration compared to the average EU citizen. Specifically, 67% of them consider that the country’s public administration is sluggish in providing services, compared to the 47% EU average. In addition, 38% of them claimed that the public administration is not close to the citizens, while the corresponding percentage in the EU is 29%.

At the same time, 38% of Cypriots believe that public administration employees lack the necessary skills, compared to 22% in the EU.

Regarding the improvements and reforms that could increase their trust in the public administration, the top three priorities chosen by Cypriots were reducing bureaucracy (62% in Cyprus, 52% in the EU), having better skilled civil servants (48% in Cyprus, 30% in the EU) and better communication with citizens (43% in Cyprus, 31% in the EU).

As in Cyprus, EU citizens’ top priority was the reduction of bureaucracy. However, their second option was transparency about the use of public funds (44% in the EU, 37% in Cyprus). The third option was, similarly to Cyprus, better and upgraded communication with citizens.

As for the specific measures that could improve citizens' interaction with the public administration, 63% of Cypriots (35% in the EU) asked for increased user-friendliness of digital services, 57% (49% in the EU) believe that there should be more communication channels to directly contact the administration, including in person, and 45% (46% in the EU) ask for more apparent information on complicated procedures.

Additionally, compared to the EU average, more Cypriots emphasized the need for more digital services (43% vs. 31%) and asked for the creation of a central contact point for all requests to public administration (43% vs. 33%).

Cypriot and EU citizens broadly believe that reforms are needed to improve government institutions and public services in the fields of education, public health and social protection.

When asked to choose up to three different areas, 52% of Cypriots chose education (50% in the EU), 52% picked public health (56% in the EU) and 48% selected 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 it in 11 out of 27 Member States.

Furthermore, Cypriots’ responses included migration (37% in Cyprus, 15% in the EU), green transition and energy supply (28% in Cyprus, 25% in the EU), employment and working conditions (20% in Cyprus, 25% in the EU).

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