In his statements, after the end of the session, the Chairman of the Committee on Interior, Giannos Lamaris, spoke about a reform in the field of Local Government, which has been attempted for years and which failed to complete its discussion.
"Today we are starting a new effort on the basis of three bills, which have been submitted by the Government and regulations are certainly expected, which will regulate similar issues," he said.
As he said, "through the dialogue that took place there are different approaches", to add that the form of the changes that are made concerns the clustering of services, the creation of Provincial Councils to which a series of responsibilities will be transferred, which are now scattered in the Local Local government, such as the Sewerage Councils and the Water Supply Councils, and efforts are being made to include Unified Licensing Authorities in these complexes ”.
He also said that the bill will regulate the local councils, the local authorities of the Municipalities and accordingly will apply the same to the communities in an effort in a next stage to have a clustering of Communities or Municipalities or both.
"Integration of Municipalities and Communities", he added, "so that there is a larger entity in these principles, which means a reduction in the number of local authorities".
Asked if we are actually talking about the abolition of Municipalities, Mr. Lamaris said that "if we get to the point of uniting Municipalities we will talk about the abolition of some Municipalities and their unification with others".
He added that "the effort is to approve these three bills before the parliamentary elections and to give a transitional stage, so that the regulations are prepared, the corresponding preparation is done, and some special committees are set up", noting that next week start the article-by-article discussion, during which the existing approaches and differences will become clear.
DISY MP Andreas Kyprianou spoke of a difficult and complex bill, adding that there is an agreement in principle with the general principles, that is, that there is an urgent need for reform in the Local Government.
"Through the article-by-article debate, the Parliament will vaccinate these bills, so that we can manage to pass a law and the transitional period can begin, so that these laws can be implemented," he said.
In addition, he explained that the goal and purpose is the viability of Local Government through economies of scale and the best and simplified procedures, which will reduce bureaucracy and will now be at the service of the citizen.
The MP of the Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Cooperation, George Perdikis, said that reform is needed "yesterday" in the Local Government, in order for the most democratic institutions to work better, to apply the principle of subsidiarity, but also to be more economical and proper management citizen issues, in the context of the TA.
"We are glad," he said, "that there is a common position of the government and the Parliament, to end this issue before the elections. There is the time, there is the will to do an agreed work, which does not leave unjustified neither the Local Government, nor the employees, but mainly the citizens, the inhabitants in the cities and in the villages ".
He also said that his Movement considers that the clustering of services is the best solution under the circumstances, adding that "it is not a good idea to put on the table at this time the prospect of abolishing municipalities or communities".
"Dialogue does not help, it does not help to reach a consensus. "We want there to be a consensus and agreement in the coming weeks."
Source: KYPE