NICOSIA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cypriot lawmakers worked their way through a maze of legislation on Saturday, averting a derailment of Cyprus' bailout program.
Despite initial strong reaction by opposition parties, the eastern Mediterranean island's 56-member parliament passed by an overwhelming majority a foreclosures bill after the government came up with several amendments and additions to the original bill.
Parliament was convened in an extraordinary and most unusual session on the weekend to pass the legislation made by international lenders a prior action for the release of the next tranche of bailout assistance.
The government can count on only 21 votes of the governing party, but of 54 deputies present during a debate which lasted over seven hours, 47 lawmakers voted for the bill and seven against it.
This was made possible after the government accepted several amendments introduced by the main opposition parties.
Cyprus is in the middle of a 10-billion-euro (13 billion U.S. dollars) and three-year economic adjustment program agreed in March, 2013, which pulled the island from the brink of default.
The Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund are scheduled to jointly disburse 436 million euros by the end of the month, after reviewing Cyprus' progress in restructuring its economy in a week's time.
The economy outperformed its targets, but party politics had almost derailed the bailout program when the foreclosures bill demanded by the island's international lenders came up for debate.
The newly enacted law is aimed at simplifying procedures to enable banks to deal with a mountain of non-performing loans making up almost one half of their portfolios. Repossession procedures under the old legislation could take up to 15 years to complete.
Opposition parties, which jointly control 35 votes in parliament, demanded the concurrent approval of several other laws to form what they described as a safety net for distressed debtors, who have offered their primary residence or small business premises as collateral.
Additional laws passed by parliament aim at curbing excessive and abusive bank rights and at preserving values of repossessed properties at no less than 80 percent of their market value.
Most prominent among seven additional bills passed by parliament is a resolution binding the government to introduce a complicated law regulating insolvency by the beginning of next year.
The Cypriot government is now faced with the task of overcoming objections to some of the legislation's provisions by the troika representing the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The Eurogroup is to meet on Sept. 12 to decide on releasing more bailout money.
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