CMP: Funding and operations not under threat
Release Date: 18 July 2023
PRESS RELEASE
(Nicosia, 18 July 2023) The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) wishes to clarify media reports over its funding made over the last few days.
The CMP has seven teams excavating daily across the island and operates an anthropological laboratory assessed as being the best in the southeastern Europe by international experts, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). CMP’s operational budget amounts to EUR 3.2 million a year and is composed of three main cost centers: excavations and exhumations, anthropological analysis and genetic identification. The CMP project is co-funded by the European Union, which is the Committee’s main and most regular donor with an annual contribution of EUR 2.6 million. In addition to funds received by the EU, 10 countries are regularly contributing to CMP’s budget. In 2022, the CMP raised funds above its regular 3.2 million budget. This year, three countries have pledged important donations, including EUR 1 million by Switzerland in a three-year grant.
The CMP has received information from the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating the end of Germany’s financial support to the CMP citing a reorganization of funds for foreign aid that will be prioritized towards Ukraine and migration in particular. The CMP is extremely grateful to Germany’s generous contribution of EUR 0.8 million since 2006.
However, this is by no means marking an end to the financial support by other donors to CMP which has both broadened and increased over the past five years.
The CMP operations are under no threat.