[PIO] Speech of the Minister of Interior Mr. Nikos Nouris at the 38th Annual General Assembly of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities

It is a great honour and pleasure for me to address this General Assembly of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities. A General Assembly that may be taking place in the midst of difficult situations due to the ongoing pandemic, but at the same time in the midst of critical developments concerning the future of Local Government in Cyprus.

As His Excellency the President of the Republic of Cyprus said, we are coming to the end of a long course of discussions and intense deliberations that have lasted well over 10 years. Today, however, we are closer than ever before to the realisation of one of the most important reforms since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, which the Government of President Anastasiades has pursued and continues to pursue consistently, prioritising it as a top priority.

It is a fact that in the last year since your last General Assembly, developments have been rapid. Very important and decisive convergences have been recorded which have helped to shape the reform bills.

To this I must admit that the excellent cooperation with the President and members of the relevant Parliamentary Committee, both past and present, has contributed greatly. Indeed, the latter has been called upon over the last three months to work under pressing timetables and its effectiveness has been remarkable. I would like to believe that the same constructive spirit will prevail in the final stages of this huge project, so that we can reach the desired goal, which is none other than the creation of a modernized and sustainable local government.

I would like to express my satisfaction to all of you, with particular reference to my friend the President and the members of the Executive Committee of the EPP, for the constructive attitude you have shown during this long journey. Your responsible attitude and your willingness to consensually resolve any issues that arose through the dialogue we had helped greatly in moving the process forward, both during the article debate before the Committee and when we were called upon to make the difficult decision to postpone the municipal and community elections.

Referring to the postponement of elections, I want to make it clear that for the Government, it was never an end in itself to extend terms of office or to vary the electoral process. But it was absolutely necessary to do so, since if we were now heading towards five-year elections, this would mean that those elected would remain in office until 2026, which would effectively cancel the reform since, among other things, it would not allow us to implement our commitment to the European Commission to implement the reform by May 2024. A commitment that is also linked to the possibility of disbursing substantial funds from the Recovery Fund.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are indeed in the final stage of taking one of the most important decisions. That of the constitution of the new entities. I would like to reiterate, although I have said it many times, that for the Government, mergers have never been an end in themselves. The objective for us is that each new entity that emerges should be distinguished by specific characteristics based on scientific criteria. It is not possible, after years of discussions, studies and arguments, to submit proposals for the maintenance of specific entities that are documented as not being able to sustain their existence under their current operating regime.

It is not possible to submit proposals for selective and undocumented mergers with Municipalities and Communities that have nothing to offer them, simply to reap temporary political or partisan benefits.

We have clearly stated from the outset that, in order for these reforms to proceed, we must simultaneously address the current real problem of the fragmentation of the country into a large number of small and unviable Municipalities and Communities. All studies over time have shown that a country the size of Cyprus cannot have such a large number of municipalities and communities.

The submission of certain proposals by representatives of the parliamentary parties and the undocumented increase in the number of new entities, from the 17 envisaged in the government bill to 20 with the possibility of a further increase, I believe with certainty that if it is put into practice, it will jeopardize the effort we have all made together, risking the very viability of local government. In such an eventuality, the big losers will be the citizens themselves, who will be called upon to pay for the deficits and the expected losses that will result.

The government, far from behind the scenes and party games, continues to maintain the view that our balanced proposal, the result of our consultation, for the establishment of a maximum of 17 new demoi, is the best under the circumstances, because it ensures the sustainability of the new institution on the basis of measurable criteria.

The new demoi, as proposed by the Government and supported by the technocratic studies, meet almost all the criteria we had set. They have the critical population mass to be able to provide more and better quality services to citizens, they are geographically and morphologically accessible and without geographical barriers to ensure their smooth functioning. They also have homogeneous social characteristics, based on the specificities of local communities, and have common economic characteristics which prevent the emergence of marked inequalities within them.

The decisions that will be taken, possibly today in the relevant Parliamentary Committee, on the future of the bill in question, should create this new reality for citizens and give prospects for the development of our country, through the creation of a new and modernized model of Local Government.

Because, my friend, President of the Union of Municipalities, the basic pillars on which the reform is based were formed through your own initiatives and the written proposals of mayors and the Union of Cyprus Municipalities. I would also like to remind you that these proposals were approved by your collective bodies and are the ones that must remain unchanged.

2. The administrative autonomy of the municipalities should be guaranteed.
3. To ensure their financial autonomy and sustainability with sufficient resources,
4. To transfer new responsibilities to the municipalities so that decision-making is transferred as close as possible to the citizen
5. The new modern model of administration of the municipalities to be built on the basis of the best international practices, in order to guarantee their effective, efficient and democratic operation.
6. This new model should be based on transparency and accountability in order to make the municipalities reliable and accountable to the citizens.
7. It is also necessary to create a new model for the functioning of the Union of Municipalities itself, making it a strong supporter of the efforts and interests of the municipalities.

Friends representatives of Local Authorities,

I assure you that the proposed bill and all the above principles and conditions are recorded and safeguarded without exception.

1. Administrative autonomy is ensured, with the state retaining only the ability to intervene in cases of budget deviations.
2. The new municipalities are financially deregulated, with the guarantee of a fixed annual subsidy with an extremely increased budget of €117 million compared to the €71 million received so far.
3. Almost all the licensing powers currently issued by the provincial administrations are transferred to the new municipalities.
4. Your role in social policy is strengthened so that you can operate more efficiently social shelters, kindergartens, nursing homes and more.
5. A Municipal Police is established with specific responsibilities and powers.
6. The possibility of providing services for intra-municipal transport for the benefit of citizens is gained.
7. It is also made possible, together with the necessary resources, for municipalities to be contracting authorities for projects, so that they can easily mature their own development projects without depending on the bureaucratic procedures of the public sector, while school boards are transferred under the supervision of local authorities.

The transfer of these and many other responsibilities is the most significant since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus.

At the same time, however, we have put in place the necessary safeguards to prevent undesirable phenomena of the recent past. For example.

A system is introduced for the first time in Cyprus to ensure transparency and control, with the obligation to publish on the internet all decisions of the municipal councils, budgets, reports of the Auditor General, all appointments and any expenditure over €5,000. In this way, every citizen will be aware of and will be able to control local decisions,

1. an Audit Committee and an Internal Audit Unit are also created in each municipality.
2. based on modern practices, we also set a cap on inelastic expenditure as a percentage of total budget expenditure so that development actions prevail,
3. groups of citizens are also given the right to submit written proposals to the City Council, which is obliged to discuss them with a view to solving problems.
4. We have satisfied the long-standing and long-standing demand of the Union of Municipalities by transforming it into a modern legal entity under public law, a powerful collective body with the capacity to promote the interests and needs of local authorities.
6. Finally, it is extremely important to say that in shaping the structure and competences of the new municipalities, the recommendations of the relevant committees of the Council of Europe were taken seriously into account and the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government were respected.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Honorable Mayors, The extension of your term of office at this transitional stage of two and a half years, from the expected passage of the bills until the next elections, when the new framework for the functioning of local government will be implemented, places a great burden on your shoulders for timely and proper preparation for a smooth transition to the new order of things. I am sure that all of you will respond with a sense of responsibility. I want to assure you that both I personally and the Home Office will be at your side at all times to support this enormous and unprecedented effort for all of us. [/p]We will support the Joint Management Boards in every way possible in this transitional phase, so that we can successfully reach our final common goal, disproving those who still regard the reform as a dream of a summer night's sleep. In the Ministry of Interior we have already prepared the first draft of the roadmap for the transition stage, which we will discuss with the Association of Municipalities to become our comprehensive operational programme covering all aspects of the new design, from services to staff training, the integration of functional systems, the development of structures, the establishment of organisational charts and all the rest, Dear Friends,[/p] Local government reform has been included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and is a prerequisite for the absorption of resources from the Fund. The Government has

deliberately

chosen to include this major reform in the Fund. Because it is simply utopian to talk about transformation, about modernization, about resilience of the economy when the institutions that have to support such an effort are not even viable

And the citizen reasonably wonders: Why then the reaction of opposition parties to the government's decision to include local government reform in the Recovery Plan programme?

If we want to be honest with ourselves, it is now universally accepted that the existing municipalities cannot continue to operate under the current regime. Besides, the gaps, omissions, and weaknesses of the system were highlighted in the most obvious way by the pandemic itself, which endangered even the financial collapse of some of the current municipalities and which, if they continue to operate today, it is due to the catalytic intervention and generous financial support of the Government. But I want to highlight the importance of the Recovery and Resilience Plan since, apart from the inclusion in it of the reform of the public administration, the Ministry of Interior is implementing, through the same plan, a series of supporting projects aimed at further promoting a balanced sustainable regional development and upgrading the quality of services to citizens and businesses. More specifically, the Ministry of Interior has implemented seven such additional actions, concerning public health and civil protection, strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of the economy and promoting digitalisation. Through the Cohesion Policy Funds for the period 2021-2027 and our national strategies, the Ministry of Interior is implementing additional actions related to the Integrated Spatial Development and Regeneration of Urban Centres and specifically the regeneration of the centre of Nicosia. We are also promoting a number of development projects in a large number of Municipalities and Communities with their total cost for the period 2022-2024 amounting to €696 million, only through the budgets of the Ministry of Interior. Particularly with regard to development projects, our targeting is

both clear and specific.

On the instructions of the Prime Minister himself, the allocation of these expenditures is balanced between urban areas and the countryside. Of the total amount of €696 million, €325 million is for investment in urban areas and €297 million is for investment in rural areas. is invested in the countryside, which we want to see rapidly revitalised by decisively tackling the phenomenon of urbanisation. In order to maximise our efficiency in the implementation of infrastructure projects, we have adopted a new strategy which involves awarding a significant number of projects to those local authorities, municipalities or communities that declare their readiness to undertake their design, supply and even construction on the basis of specific procedures.

And I must say that this new methodology has already begun to pay off and plans are being transformed into projects, rapidly realising our objectives away from the bureaucratic procedures of the public sector. This is also the direction in which the reform on planning and building permits, which has been implemented for a year now and in which the Local Authorities Licensing Authorities are also involved, is moving, and which allows for obtaining a permit to build a house in just ten days. Already 2,400 applicants have benefited from the new measure.

Ladies and Gentlemen, only with similar policies and attitudes will we escape from the barriers of the past and improve the quality of life of our people. [/p]Your Excellency, Friends, Representatives of Local Authorities, Let me conclude by addressing all those involved in the ongoing reform effort, especially the political parties. The fate of local government reform is now literally in your hands. We all recognise the need for change and modernisation. Everyone may have their own position and opinion on some individual issues. But now is the time for everyone to look at the big picture. To face the future with perspective, putting aside any controversies and local interests. Our society is watching and expects all of us to rise to the occasion and assume our responsibilities so that every citizen of this country, wherever they live in Cyprus, whatever they vote, can receive quality services, adapted to modern needs, from a local government that will stand by them but based on solid foundations. I therefore call upon all of you, as we have worked together consensually all this time, to support

to the end

the successful completion and the effort for a rational reform of local government. Assessing the responsibility shown so far by all participants in the process, we are entitled, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, to be optimistic about the final result.

Thank you for your patience and the opportunity you have given me. I wish you every success in the proceedings of your General Assembly. Happy holidays to you and your families.

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