The Minister of Interior expressed the view that if the upcoming Municipal Elections in December take place, then the effort of the Local Government reform will be torpedoed. Guest at Mesimeri kai Kati, Mr. Nouris said that this is an 11-year effort for which none of the parties is against but on the contrary they are ardent supporters.
He also said that there are individual issues that were discussed with the parties in the meetings he had with them in the previous days. He stressed, however, that the differences that are raised are not bridging and the middle solution can be found with effort.
"We do not have the luxury of time. There should be a timetable. This is significantly limited. Any decision must be linked to the election. "The timetable is therefore influenced by it (including the elections)," he said.
"September is crucial. If the elections are held normally in December, I believe that the reform will be torpedoed. "Let's go to 2026, that is, and then we will show inconsistency with the EU regarding what has been agreed for the Recovery Fund", he stressed.
"Europeans are interested in having local government reform by May 2024. The same goes for the reform of Justice.
Whatever the issues, we now have the election timetable. "I argued that if elections are held then we are essentially losing the reform plan", the Minister underlined.
"We suggested the extension of the term of the existing ones until May '24 for specific reasons. "On September 9, I will be in the Home Affairs Committee and I hope that all the parties will be ready so that we can have a decision at least on the issue of elections," he noted on the issue of reform.
Revocation of passports
Nikos Nouris also spoke about the revocation of the passports of the KD by the occupation leader and the members of the pseudo-ministerial. He reiterated the rationale of this decision while at the same time he clarified that the decision of the Republic concerns 14 people. The Minister denied reports in the Turkish Cypriot press that spoke of the revocation of passports by 10 other businessmen.
Source: Sigmalive