With important pending issues remaining, today's debate in the House of Representatives' Internal Affairs Committee in relation to the Local Government Reform was concluded.
The thorny issue of mergers and clustering of municipalities and communities remains open, while it seems that there was agreement in principle to hold referendums, but not their form.
Today's session of the parliamentary committee was lengthy and important issues were discussed during it, but a final decision will be taken when the matter comes before the plenary session, which will meet on 24 February to decide on local government reform. However, before that, there will be another meeting of the Internal Affairs Committee on 10 February before the bills in question are brought to the floor for a vote.
In a statement after the session, DISY MP Nikos Sykas said that "after five months of persistent effort, the Interior Committee concluded its last session discussing amendments and finally the three bills of the Communities Act will be brought forward, the Municipalities Act and the provincial self-government bodies to the plenary session of the House of Representatives on the morning of February 24."
"It was indeed a persistent effort, so on this occasion I would like to express my warmest thanks both to the Chairman of the Committee and to all members of the Committee without exception, for the spirit of cooperation, understanding and above all responsibility that has prevailed," he said.
"During our meeting today, the amendments have been made, we have decided on the election of the Deputy Mayors, on the election of the Chairman of the provincial government body. We will discuss, after we have taken today the issue of election of first and second allocation of Councillors, as well as we have considered the possibility that the small communities on the issue of terms I refer to, we can exceptionally some of the communities can be extended the term of the existing ones.
Beyond that from the very first moment as the Democratic Alliance we have been saying that reform is a social need, our country needs it and I think that also within the Recovery and Resilience Fund I think we are also giving a clear message. We are predetermining and defining the Cyprus of tomorrow with the Recovery and Resilience Fund with a time horizon of 2026, a universal reform that also touches the new generation and I think the reform of local government is the beginning first and foremost to give continuity and consistency to what Cyprus wants for tomorrow and also as state officials once again we have to prove our credibility through our work and our actions," he said.
"I hope that by the 24th of February we will go to the Plenary Assembly with the maximum possible majority and I am sure that after the reform of local government other reforms will follow which our country really needs," he concluded.
For her part, Ecologist Movement MP Alexandra Attalidoy said that "an amendment was adopted which really represents us fully because it will make the distribution of Councillors more democratic - in our view - and people who can run as a group in each election will also be represented. So in the second distribution we think that the distribution of Councillors will be more democratic and that's why we think it is very important because Local Government means more democracy and closer to the citizen."
"The second thing is that we continued with the clusters. It was a constructive and consensual approach. You realize that there are also political positions related to the aspirations of some parties. Our pursuit is: the clusters that will be made should have the carrying capacity to manage both the services properly, but also the issues that we are concerned about, on the ecology and climate change side - and that is what we have promoted. Those were the recommendations."
He went on to say "we have in turn tried to make recommendations to reduce the municipalities. We believe that we cannot on the one hand have the government saying we want fewer municipalities, but on the other hand add a municipality that the government adds. If we are going to reduce municipalities, everyone has to compromise. We are ready to compromise, as long as it is not to the detriment of the citizens. As long as it is not at the expense of the carrying capacity to offer what local government should offer to the citizens."
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
