The Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos, will ask for information on any agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues related to the reform of the Local Government.
In his statements to KYPE and commenting on reports according to which the Union of Municipalities has agreed on several issues on the issue of local government reform with the Ministry of Interior, Giannis Karousos said that he personally has "several doubts whether the Union of Municipalities has been negotiated on the basis of the decisions of the General Assembly and whether it has put on the table several issues that had been discussed ".
He added that he would ask "the President of the Union of Municipalities to inform the Mayors about what has been agreed with the Ministry of Interior and whether the issue of referendums has been raised, an issue that was a decision of the General Assembly. The General Assembly decided that it would call for a referendum and those who participate in the negotiating team and who unfortunately, subconsciously or consciously, want to unite with other smaller Municipalities to become emperors, must realize that the issue of referendum must be raised. ».
According to Mr. Karousos, "in case Ayia Napa merges with other Municipalities, it will be dissolved, for the reasons we have analyzed many times. "Ayia Napa has prepared a study by an independent organization, data of which will be published in the coming days," he said, noting that "if we experiment with Ayia Napa, the metropolis of Cypriot tourism, to the point where we can not decide on its of our house, then the economy of the whole of Cyprus will be endangered ".
Therefore he continued "with Municipalities of national importance such as Ayia Napa, we do not play and do not experiment. We are in favor of the reform for this and we have made, perhaps, the most proposals and suggestions on the issue from any other Municipality of Cyprus, however we want there to be improvement and to give more responsibilities to the Municipalities ".
The Mayor also said that "we strongly disagree with the way in which the mergers of the Municipalities are promoted. Ayia Napa is not a Municipality of five thousand inhabitants but of 70 thousand, it has the 5th largest budget in Cyprus and contributes on an annual basis about 800 million euros to the local economy ".
At the same time, he called on everyone to think "what risks will there be for the local economy but also for the economy of Cyprus in general, in case wrong decisions are made on the major issue of the unification of Municipalities and the reform of Local Government."
Source: KYPE