I had the opportunity today to meet with the Bureau of the Union of Cyprus Communities to go over a number of issues which were either pending or we had renewed their discussion at a subsequent meeting.
The Government, as you well know, and particularly the President of the Republic, is very sensitive to the issues and problems facing the Cypriot countryside and certainly our communities.
It is in this context that we have recently reviewed all the problems that either remained pending or needed to be resolved and I am today pleased to announce our decisions on all the pending cases that we had before the Ministry of Interior and that concern the interests of the communities and, of course, the citizens who live in the countryside.
The first measure, which is being implemented at the request of the Union of Communities, is. Exceptional upgrading of the municipalities of Mammari, Deneia and Trullo to the category 'Mountain and Less Favoured Areas'[/B]
The exceptional upgrading of the only three municipalities of Mammari, Deneia and Trullo which are located entirely within the Dead Zone. They are being upgraded in the housing plan from the "Arid" category to the "Mountain and Disadvantaged Areas" category in a way that will enable them to enjoy greater benefits.
The aim and objective is not only economic benefits. Our purpose and objective is to enable the attraction of particularly young people who wish or will wish to remain and build their own homes in our three communities that are within the neutral zone, with obvious reasons to enhance population density.
The upgrades are important. For example, in a family of 3 people the maximum benefit will reach €40,000 and of course special allowances of €10,000 will be added to these benefits for people with disabilities, and where special constructions are required an additional €15,000 will be granted.
The second important request, which I admit took us some time in the Ministry, but within the framework of the review of our housing policy for the new year, the decision was taken today. Inclusion of seven (7) additional communities in the plans to provide financial assistance to residents of mountain and remote areas[/B]
We have had a number of issues and requests from various communities.
The Ministry of Interior has decided to exceptionally include in the Support Plan for residents of seven (7) specific mountain communities that are at an altitude of more than 600 meters.
They are the communities of Mesana, Monagri, Doros, Kedares, Limnatis, Kapilios and Agios Ambrosios Limassol, which are not currently included in the Plan because their residential zone is at an altitude of less than 600 m. which was included in the Plan.
But these areas have a geographical peculiarity: they are surrounded by other municipalities which have already been included in the plan and on the basis of their geographical characteristics it was decided to include them in the plan, starting from the 1st of the year 2023. This decision will benefit around 1,092 inhabitants of these seven municipalities with a total additional cost of €250,000.
The third issue is to support and help our rural residents. It is the:
III. Concession of the exceptional financial assistance for 2022 in the context of supporting the inhabitants of communities with an altitude of more than 600 metres (mountain allowance).
Taking into account the socio-economic situation of the inhabitants of mountainous areas, inflationary pressures and dramatically increased fuel prices, the Council of Ministers has already decided to grant a one-off emergency aid to all residents of communities with an altitude of more than 600m, who are entitled to this allowance, and this one-off allowance will be equal to 50% of the allowance they already receive.
The expenditure currently allocated was €5.2 million and 9,740 households will benefit from it. With the additional emergency allowance, which we are granting, the expenditure will be €7.8 million We will spend a further €2.6 million to give these 9,740 households an additional help to cover the specific problems.
The fourth item concerned a long-standing request from the Union of Communities. And it relates to:
IV
Recently, at the end of August, Cabinet decided to approve the phased restoration of the "Commons Pension Allowance" to pre-crisis levels in 2013, and we decided to do this with a three-year horizon, i.e. phased restoration in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
It is a fact that the difficult economic climate and the fact that from 1 January, as the argument of the Union of Communities, the majority of the pre-2023 restoration is restored, was put on the table as a claim by the Union of Communities to restore from 1 January 2023 this year in total to 100% of the pension compensation of parish councillors.
And I am pleased to say that, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, we have decided today that we will proceed precisely to the full restoration of the mayors' pension allowances with an additional expenditure of €610,000 which will be required and which will be met from Home Office funds.
As a reminder, we have already granted the request for a monthly and 13th pension allowance to the Commune Mayors of our occupied communities as well, equal to 50% of the pension allowance received by the retired Commune Mayors of the Free Territories.
I would hope that this particular decision of ours closes the chapter on pension allowances, which has been on the agenda of our respective meetings with the respective Councils of the Union of Communities.
Finally, a very important announcement, also a request of the Union of Communities and a position of principle of the Home Office. Today we are announcing:
This is the beginning of the process of reviewing and amending the Planning Zones in the countryside in order to modernise them and, of course, to enable them to support the modern social, cultural and economic development needs of our countryside.
The review, which is no easy task, will cover 36 geographical areas in the countryside.
Because it could not all be done at one specific date, we have divided the review into three (3) phases.
The first phase starts in a few days, on 09/12/22 for a period of 4 months and will be followed by subsequent phases so that within 2023 the review of the Urban Zones and the Rural Policy Statement will be completed.
In this way we are creating the conditions for urban activity, economic and cultural, in our countryside, which, as I said before, is perfectly in line with the targeted actions and holistic approach we have for the revitalisation of our countryside, so that it prospers and of course to address, among other things, the problems of urbanisation, which currently plague it.
[SEE PRESENTATION here]
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