Cyprus is not short on good ideas. It is occasionally short on the courage to try them out loud. Elsewhere, governments, municipalities, employers, schools and institutions have already run the experiment: they tried the bold policy, braced for backlash, and mostly got a shrug and a thank-you instead. In this series, Politis to the Point brings those tested practices to Cypriot decision-makers with a simple, friendly nudge: the hard part, the actual risk-taking, has already been done by someone else. All that's left is the paperwork.
Cyprus extended statutory maternity leave in March 2024, raising the entitlement from 18 to 22 weeks for a first or second child, and to 26 weeks for a third or subsequent child, paid through the Social Insurance Fund at between 72% and 100% of the mother's insurable earnings, depending on the number of children. A genuine improvement, and also, as it turns out, a fairly cautious one by the standards of the countries that got there first.
Where Cyprus stands today
At least 11 of the 22 weeks are compulsory, including two before the expected birth and eight after. Fathers receive two weeks of paid paternity leave, and each parent may separately take unpaid parental leave. Dismissal during pregnancy or maternity leave is illegal.
What the UK offers
The United Kingdom guarantees 52 weeks of job-protected maternity leave from day one of employment, regardless of length of service, split into 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave. Of that, 39 weeks are paid: the first six at 90% of average earnings, the remaining 33 at a statutory flat rate (£194.32 per week from April 2026) or 90% of earnings, whichever is lower. The final 13 weeks go unpaid, but the job stays protected throughout, and annual leave keeps accruing across the full year. From April 2026, UK reforms also made paternity leave and unpaid parental leave day-one rights.
What Russia offers
Russia takes a different shape but a longer view. Mothers receive 140 days (roughly 20 weeks) at 100% of average earnings, rising to 156 days for complicated births. This is followed by childcare leave, open to either parent, paid at a percentage of earnings for the first 18 months and then unpaid but fully job-protected up to three years after the birth. Parents can return part-time during this period without losing the position, or a comparable one, held open for them.
What Estonia and Bulgaria offer
Estonia is widely treated as the global benchmark. Mothers receive around 100 days of maternity leave at 100% of average earnings, followed by a parental benefit paid at 100% of earnings for up to 435 days, bringing the combined fully paid period to roughly 1.5 years. Fathers additionally receive their own non-transferable parental benefit period. Bulgaria offers close to 58 weeks at 90% of average pay, with the option to extend leave until the child turns two at a lower rate.
What Norway and Sweden offer
Norway lets parents choose between 49 weeks at full salary or 59 weeks at 80%, state-funded, with a portion reserved specifically for each parent on a "use it or lose it" basis, designed so fathers take a genuine share of the leave rather than defaulting it to mothers. Sweden offers 480 days of shared parental leave, roughly 390 of them paid at about 80% of salary, plus the world's longest fully paid paternity leave at 12 weeks.
Why it's an easy sell
None of these countries introduced longer leave and then quietly reversed it. None faced the employer exodus or fertility-office panic sometimes predicted before such reforms land. In Norway and Sweden, the father-specific "use it or lose it" weeks are also credited with narrowing the gap in unpaid caregiving between parents, a bonus outcome worth flagging to any Cypriot lawmaker weighing this up purely as a cost line.
For anyone in Cyprus currently calculating the political risk of going further than 22 weeks: four very different systems, market-liberal Britain, state-directed Russia, and two of the EU's most generous Baltic and Nordic states, have already run the numbers.
The results are in. The idea is proven. The only thing left to decide is who picks it up first.
Have a good practice worth bringing home? If your country, company or institution does something Cyprus should be trying, we want to hear about it. Send your ideas to peggy.s@politis.com.cy — the next instalment of Proven Elsewhere could be inspired by you.
