"Reform can not wait any longer, so we must move quickly recognizing the pressure of the timetables," said today the Minister of Interior Mr. Nikos Nouris in his statements after the meeting with the President and members of the Executive Committee of the Union of Municipalities of Cyprus .
The Minister of Interior said that "today's meeting with the Union of Municipalities is a continuation of the cooperation we have all these years with the Union of Municipalities, which is the main partner together with the Union of Communities", and noted that the latter has preceded a meeting last Friday.
He added that "it was in the context of this cooperation that I was briefed on what was said at the last sitting of the Parliamentary Committee on the Interior and of course on the fact that there were differences in the final texts, which need clarification."
He noted that in addition to the review, what has been clearly agreed between us is that "it is necessary to clarify the problem that arose with the issue of referendums, so we will wait for the positions of the State Legal Service. At the same time, the Union of Municipalities and the Ministry of Interior have expressed the will that the reform can not wait any longer, so we must move quickly recognizing the pressure of the schedules. "
Mr. Nouris said that the third issue discussed was the scenarios concerning the number of Municipalities. "The Ministry of Interior states for the umpteenth time our position on the need to remain in the scenarios that have been proposed in Parliament, not because the specific number that has been proposed is an end in itself, but simply because we do not want to jeopardize the viability of the reform ", which is not guaranteed by the proposed scenarios, as we have explained in Parliament," he said.
He noted that "the fourth issue, which is well known and which I have notified to the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs, is that the European Commission's observation that the local government reform undertaken by the Republic of Cyprus was a permanent obligation". This, clarified Mr. Nouris "can be a serious possibility in the issue of financing for disbursement from the Recovery Fund of 980 million euros, which the Republic of Cyprus needs at this time as never before".
Finally, he said that some concerns of the Union of Municipalities were discussed regarding the issue of licensing, and mainly regarding the 'single' of licensing. "I have told the representatives and the President of the Union of Municipalities that the Ministry of Interior is ready - after all, I have expressed it through my letter that has already been sent to Parliament - to vaccinate this proposal with those provisions that will make the Local Authorities and participant in the licensing process. He explained that the goal is not to have "concern on the part of the Union of Municipalities, that is, with the transfer of the responsibility of licensing to the Provincial Councils that the Municipalities are alienated". "It is not our intention. The Municipalities must have a role and a say in the issue of licensing ", stressed Mr. Nouris. He added that "what we have explained is that with this specific differentiation that we have in the bills we create five licensing authorities in our country, something that will help the most in the implementation of local plans, but also homogeneous policies in each province." On the other hand, he said, "we want to give a speech to the Local Authorities, as we want to give a speech to the citizens for any significant development that will occur in the territory of each new Municipality and we will take care to ensure this, if necessary with some amendments to of the existing bill ".
Concluding, the Minister said that "we will continue to be in touch with the Union of Municipalities based on the fact that both sides fully agree that within the timetables of the current parliamentary term we must take care to lead the bills in the Plenary for a vote." .
In his statements, the President of the Union of Municipalities, Mr. Andreas Vyras, in the constructive, as he characterized it, meeting with the Minister, "the first thing we stressed again is the necessity of the reform".
He stressed that "the way must be found for the reform to proceed. And there is no other time. There is no time for postponement. A very important work has been done, which has been going on for over three years. We came up with a bill, which includes basic and long-standing positions of Local Government. And this bill must be the basis on which the reform will be based. "
Mr. Vyras stated that in the meeting they talked about the various issues that arose from the discussion in the Parliamentary Committee on Interior. "We agreed with the Minister that he has some issues that need to be clarified, both of a legal and practical nature, as the discussion is now taking place in the Committee on Interior," he said.
He said that they were informed by the Minister about some issues that have been sent for opinion to the Attorney General of the Republic, while part of the discussions he said that there were other issues such as the number of Municipalities and the referendums.
"We stressed the positions of the General Assembly of the Union of Municipalities on some of these issues and on the other hand we expressed some of our own positions and especially on the issue of licensing - I hope there will be no other important changes in Parliament - which is exactly the issue. who will approve the various licenses, "he said.
He added that "we expressed our strong reservations and concerns about this change, which was formed through the debate in Parliament. "And an issue that we receive strong reactions from almost all municipalities," said the President.
"We reiterated our will and desire for a constructive discussion and approach in order for the reform to succeed. And I repeat that we stressed once again that the Union of Municipalities and almost all the Municipalities have a strong position that this process must go through ", concluded Mr. Vyras.
Asked about the position of the Union of Municipalities on the number of Municipalities, the President said that as a Union of Municipalities it had no decision regarding the number of Municipalities. They are personal views of the members of the Executive clarified. He explained that "when we made our decisions, we had talked about 12 to 14 Municipalities. It is not the main number of Municipalities ". "Mergers and acquisitions are a 'necessary evil,'" he said, "in order to achieve reform." "And in order to have the powers we want and to be able to have the control we need to have, there has to be a certain size," he said.
Regarding the referendums, Mr. Vyras, when asked about the position of the Union of Municipalities, conveyed the position of the General Assembly, saying that there should be no referendums. This is the decision regardless of our personal views, he concluded.