The House of Representatives approved the bill for the "Control of Atmospheric Pollution (Amendment) Act, 2022" and the Regulations "On the Control of Atmospheric Pollution (Limitation of Emissions of Certain Pollutants into the Atmosphere from Medium-Sized Combustion Plants) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022".
The purpose of the Act is to amend the Air Pollution Control Act in order to achieve, on the one hand, a more correct harmonisation with Article 16 of the Act of the European Union entitled "Directive (EU) 2015/2193 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the atmosphere from medium-sized combustion plants" and, on the other hand, to improve the existing legislative framework for the control of air pollution.
AKEL MP Nikos Ketteros said that according to the government's draft law, the renewal of permits for medium-sized combustion plants will be every ten years instead of every five years. We disagree with this and believe that inspections of these units should be carried out every five years, he said. DISY MP Prodromos Alabritis said that inspections should be done intensively but added that here we are talking about licensing of plants and not about inspection. Ecologist MP Haralambos Theopeptou pointed out that the number one risk to public health in Europe is air quality and said there is a shortage of staff in the Environment Department.
The plenary adopted the amendment by MEPs Charalambos Theopeptou, on behalf of the Ecologists' Movement - Citizens' Co-operation and Nikos Ketteros, Andreas Kavkalias and Marina Nicolaou, on behalf of the AKEL-Left-New Forces parliamentary group, which deleted the extension of the maximum period of validity of the waste gas emission permit granted by the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, so that it remains at five years.
The purpose of the Regulations, which are issued under Article 9 of the Air Pollution Control Act, is to amend the Air Pollution Control (Limitation of Emissions of Certain Pollutants into the Atmosphere from Medium-Sized Combustion Plants) Regulations, in order to achieve better harmonisation with Article 16 of Directive (EU) 2015/2193.
Also, the House of Representatives approved the Seeds (Cereals) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 in order to harmonise national legislation with the EU.
The purpose of the Regulations, which are made under sections 7 and 14 of the Seeds Act, is to amend the Seeds (Cereals) Regulations, in order to harmonise national legislation with the European Union Act entitled 'Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2021/1927 of 5 November 2021 amending Annexes I and II to Council Directive 66/402/EEC as regards requirements for seed of wheat hybrids produced with cytoplasmic male sterility'.
Please note that the deadline for transposition of the provisions of Implementing Directive (EU) 2021/1927 into national law is 31 August 2022.
According to the Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources and on the basis of the information submitted to the Commission by government officials, the Regulations aim to harmonise national legislation with the European acquis in the field of seeds with regard to the requirements for the production of seeds of hybrid varieties of durum wheat species, 'soft wheat' and 'alfalfa' produced by the male cytoplasmic sterility technique (CMS), which has become universally accepted as a breeding technique for the production of hybrid cereal varieties. Furthermore, based on the above information, the requirements set out in the regulations for these wheat species are similar to the requirements already in place for the production of seed of hybrid barley varieties.
In addition, the House of Representatives accepted the President's referrals with regard to the Law on Specifications, Sustainability Criteria and Reduction of Fuel Emissions of 2022.
Three laws were referred last week. The remaining two are the Renewable Energy and Energy Saving Fund Operation Act of 2022 and the Promotion and Encouragement of the Use of Renewable Energy Sources Act of 2022.
Taking the floor, the Chairman of the Commerce Committee Kyriakos Hatzigiannis said that for the second law that was referred, the referral is accepted by essentially changing two points, in the law there are two members and become three and a correction is made regarding the discretion given to the Minister to appoint if the consumer representatives do not decide. The plenary unanimously accepted the referral.
Regarding the third law that was referred, Mr. Hatzigiannis said that it is partially accepted and added that two issues are not accepted, the first is the photovoltaic panels on the roofs which remains as the Commission has decided we do not accept the arguments of the executive and the second is the process of licensing the one stop shop and here again we do not accept the changes of the executive.
Also, after a lengthy debate, the Bill "The Regulation of the Establishment and Operation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2022" and the Regulations "The Regulation of the Establishment and Operation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022" were rejected.
Source: KYPE
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