The Mayor of Ayia Napa Giannis Karousos, the Mayor Sotiras Giorgos Takkas and the community leader of Liopetri Kyriakos Trisokkas informed today the President of the Movement of Ecologists-Citizens' Cooperation Giorgos Perdikis, about the decision to unite Ayia Napa-Soprios which has been adopted unanimously by all three Councils.
As Mr. Karousos said, there will be contacts with all party leaders.
They presented to us, said Mr. Perdikis, their proposal for merging these three local government units into a new local government unit in the context of the effort made for the reform of local government.
"We believe that the local government needs reform, the local authorities need strengthening, we need bigger municipalities, but with respect for the particular entities within the municipalities. "We can not understand the logic of dissolution or abolition, but we can discuss the logic of the composition with the aim of transferring responsibilities from the central government to the local government units, which are wider, stronger," he noted.
I must say, Mr. Perdikis continued, that the two mayors and the mayor have too many arguments to support their proposal and for me personally their most important argument is that this proposal is gaining popular acceptance at the community level and of their municipalities.
"As an Movement of Ecologists-Citizens' Cooperation, we have long submitted a bill, where all important decisions at the municipal level must be taken through referendums. We support direct democracy at the unit level of local government. I must confess to you that I also put our reservation to the President of the Republic that we can not accept that even this positive measure of local government reform will be imposed by law and without the consent of the citizens and local communities themselves. "This is the concept of democracy and the good must go through popular affirmation, otherwise we will be led into difficult and dark paths."
We certainly agree, he added, with the two mayors and the mayor that any solution found in the issue of local reform in the province of Famagusta to gain the consent and confirmation by popular vote through a referendum.
The Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos, referring to the decision for merging the Municipality of Ayia Napa-Sotira and Liopetri, said that "in this way we create a municipality, which enjoys all the benefits of tourism and the economic power that Ayia Napa has today but also the benefits that the hinterland has today, especially the municipality of Sotiras and the community of Liopetri but also the common coastal front which will be created from Konnos to the river Liopetri ".
Our arguments, he noted, are also technocratic, they are also economic and are confirmed by several studies and in principle by the study prepared by the Union of Municipalities itself which states that in case of creation of two municipalities in the province of Famagusta a municipality should be created with based in Ayia Napa and another based in Paralimni.
He also noted that a study base prepared by the independent international auditing firm Ernest Young, essentially confirms that the merger of Ayia Napa-Sotiras and Liopetri is the best for the region and especially for the residents of these three entities but also confirms from a relevant research of the European Union on issues of territorial cooperation, where it is proved that Ayia Napa is the working center for Sotira and Liopetri ".
"We have several arguments. The biggest and most important thing is the fact that there is a consensus, something that must be taken seriously and we inform all political leaders because we really believe that this proposal must pass and we expect the Parliament when the time comes to approve it. " , he added.