Nicos Tornaritis

He is the Head of the Parliament’s delegation to the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) since 2013. In October 2017 he was elected APA Vice President and President of the APA Standing Committee on Economic and Sustainable Development. Following his election, this APA Committee met for the first time in Cyprus in June 2018. More than 100 MPs and Senators from 20 Asian Countries attended the meeting.

He is also a member of the Parliament’s delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and to the Interparliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union (IPC SECG).

In March 2018 he participated in the first Commonwealth Parliamentarians’ Forum which took place in London. The Forum set the scene for the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and was attended by more than 70 MPs from more than 25 Commonwealth countries.

In September 2018, he was one of the main speakers in the plenary session of the 10th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP 10), as Vice President of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly. This Meeting took place in the European Parliament in Brussels and prepared the ground for the subsequent 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit, which brought together the leaders of many European and Asian countries.  

In November 2018 he participated in the High-Level Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy that was held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Conference promoted the global debate on the Blue Economy and was attended by more than 30 Heads of State and Government and over 3000 representatives from around the world, from member states and UN agencies, multilateral development banks, international organizations, private companies and non-governmental organizations.

He was chairman of the House Education Committee from 2004 until 14 May 2013 when he became the Parliamentary Representative of Democratic Rally and a member of the Committees of the Interior, Institutions, Securities and Commissioner for Administration and Environment.

He represents DISY on the European level by participating in the Summits of Chairmen of EPP Parliamentary Groups in the National Parliaments of the EU and the European Parliament (Summits of EPP Parliamentary Leaders) since 2013.

He was elected as MP of Nicosia constituency under the banner of Democratic Rally (DISY) in the parliamentary elections that were held on May 27, 2001, May 21, 2006 and 22 May 2011. He was elected for a fourth consecutive term in the parliamentary elections of 22 May 2016. Despite the extremely high abstention rate, he took the second place on the Nicosia ballot with 10534 votes.

At the parliamentary elections held on 22 May 2011, which revealed that the first Democratic Rally party at rates in Cyprus, Tornaritis was reelected. Tornaritis was enlisted in the fifth rank. With reformation in the House of Representatives of Cyprus Tornaritis retained his position as Chairman of the House Education Committee and a member of the Committee on Environment and Human Rights Commission.

He contributed substantially to the necessary consensus for adoption of law on the functioning of private universities (2007). He was Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development DISY and Chairman of the Economic Management Committee.

He served as Vice President of the Democratic Rally (2006-2013), DISY Commissioner for Educational Affairs and Co-ordinator of the Culture and Athletics Sector, DISY Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development (2001-2005), President of the Nicosia District Financial Management Committee of DISY (1995-1999), as well as member of the board of the Cyprus State Fairs Authority (1994-2000).

As Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Educational Affairs (2004-2013), he contributed to the formation of the necessary consensus for the adoption of the law on the operation of private universities (2007). He also contributed substantially to the creation of a permanent contact between the Parliamentary Education Committee of Cyprus and the Parliamentary Committee on Cultural Affairs of Greece.

He is a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus (House of Representatives) since 2001.

The election of the parliamentary mandate (2001) suspended the operation of the lawyer's office supporting the principle of incompatibility between the advisory capacity and the legal profession.

He stopped working as a lawyer when he was elected parliamentarian for the first time in 2001, as he supports in practice the principle of incompatibility between the parliamentary status and the legal profession.

He is the Honorary Consul of Kenya in Cyprus since 1998. As Honorary Consul he contributed to the establishment of hospitals and schools in the African country.

Nicos Tornaritis (born December 6, 1964) is a Cypriot politician and jurist. He is married to Lia Andrea Ellinas and has two daughters. He studied law and political science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and has attended the programme “Senior Managers in Government” in John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.