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The extension of the National Strategy for the Development of Mountain Communities, the ongoing revision of the Housing Plan for the Revitalization of Mountain, Arctic and Disadvantaged Communities, as well as the reform of Local Self-Government, were, among others, the focus of today's meeting of the Minister of Interior Mr.
As the Minister of Interior said in his statements after the meeting, in today's first meeting with the Commissioner, a review of the National Strategy for the Development of Mountainous Areas, as it was prepared by the previous administration, was conducted in view of its update.
As the Minister of Interior said in his statements after the meeting, in today's first meeting with the Commissioner, a review of the National Strategy for the Development of Mountainous Areas as it was prepared by the previous administration was conducted. "As a government, we are placing special emphasis on the mountain areas as directed by President Christodoulides. We have done a review of the Strategy, identified some issues that need to be taken forward immediately," the Interior Minister noted.
He also said that the Commissioner has already visited all the mountainous communities and has recorded all the issues, and is now at the stage where he is making contacts with the relevant Ministries and Departments to start implementing the National Strategy for the Development of Mountainous Areas.
Asked to say what issues were raised at the meeting, Mr. Ioannou pointed out that "there are issues related to the registration of rural roads, various other urban planning projects, issues related to development that involve the Department of Urban Planning and the Department of Land Registry. The requests of the Communities mainly relate to projects and developments that fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior."
Continuing, the Minister referred to the regional meetings held last September in all the Provinces, during which the various problems of the Communities were recorded. "We have already resolved several of the issues, especially in the small communities, and we are planning to hold meetings again next month to see the progress of this work. But all of this falls within the Commissioner's responsibilities, where his main role is to coordinate the work of the various ministries," Ioannou explained.
Next, when asked what the amendments to the Local Government Reform Bills are about, the Interior Minister said that they are not about any substantial changes. Their aim, he said, is to improve the functioning of the reform on technical points. "Various errors and omissions were observed and the aim of the amendment bills is to correct them. They were purely technical in nature," he said. He pointed out that amendments were made to all three bills (the Municipalities, Communities and Provincial Self-Government Organizations Acts) and they mainly concern some changes on elections or on the implementation of laws.
Asked to comment on criticisms about delays in tabling bills, the Interior Minister stressed that "if the bills had no mistakes, there would have been no need to submit amendments. As the executive, we identify errors in the bills and that is why we submit amendments. Unfortunately, we identified several mistakes or improvements that needed to be made in these bills, either in the electoral law or their practical implementation, and that is why it took more time. But this will not create any delay in the practical implementation of the reform."
Asked if it is estimated that the House will put the brakes on, Ioannou said that there is an excellent cooperation with the House Committee on Internal Affairs, its chairman and members. He explained that the goal was for the amendments to be submitted in November to have more time ahead of them, however, this was not possible because when studying the bills, more changes were identified that needed to be made. "We could have submitted them from November and in the process problems would arise. That would not have been the right thing to do and that is why more time was needed. I want to stress that these are practical and technical issues and have nothing to do with the philosophy or architecture of these bills," he clarified."
With regard to the Housing Plan for the Revitalization of Mountain, Scenic and Disadvantaged Communities, the Home Affairs Minister said that these housing plans will be reviewed next month. These are, he recalled, Schemes that have been implemented since 2019 with great success and have so far provided a total of €49 million to around 1,300 beneficiaries. "Our aim is to attract people to these areas, young couples. Because of the resonance of the Scheme, we have been picking up all this time through our contacts with the communities various problems that exist in the practical implementation, so that in the review we can make this Scheme even more flexible and more efficient," he said. Ioannou, adding that it is estimated that the relevant announcements will be made in the next 3-4 weeks. As he pointed out, a very good job is being done by the Union of Communities and its President, Mr. Kitromilides. He referred to the meeting he will have with the Union of Communities next Monday, as well as to meetings held last month in all the Provinces, where all the Communities were invited to explain again the main provisions of the legislation. "I specifically believe that clustering and reform in the Communities will have enormous benefits for them. Small Communities of 50-100 inhabitants at the moment cannot afford to hire administrative staff, health staff, accounting services, cannot take part in European Union funding programmes. With clustering there will be for each Cluster all these staff, which has been divided into three categories according to the size of the Cluster. So there will now be administrative staff will offer many more services, whether it is health services or dog waste collection which will be at a central level where there will be economies of scale. There will now be experienced administrative staff, to be able to bid for planning projects themselves and not be dependent on the Mayor's office. So all these advantages will also be available to the Communities very soon with clustering.
For his part, the Commissioner for Mountain Communities Development noted that today's meeting is the first of a series of contacts he will hold with all Ministries, following instructions from the President of the Republic, with specific objectives. "The President has set the bar high as far as the mountain areas are concerned and that is why we are here to take on this coordinating role from the Presidency, as directed by our President, to move forward on all those things that concern the mountain communities to improve the quality of life of the residents," he said.
He added that the meeting with the Minister of Interior addressed a wide range of issues concerning all the Communities, based on the contacts made. He expressed the expectation that there will soon be results, which will be announced.
Asked to say what the priorities of his Office are, the Commissioner explained that "the priorities that have been set by the President of the Republic and by us are that the Mountain Communities should finally be given the role they deserve. But in order for them to acquire this role, three important things need to be done on the policy axes, and these have been defined at the highest level by the President himself, and they concern the road network, i.e. access to the mountain communities. The second issue is the health of the people of the mountain areas, whose health services we need to upgrade the health services that we have in our mountain areas, and it is specific action there. And the third issue is education.
But, we have a horizontal meeting with all the Ministries, in which we will promote all the strategies that are in the National Strategy for Troodos, there is a plan, a plan that was implemented by the previous Government, it has started to be implemented. Our goal is to go even further to achieve the desired results, so that the last resident feels the presence of the central state in her last home in our mountainous communities."
Finally, in response to a question as to whether there is any progress on the request of the Troodos Communities to create a Troodos University, Christofinas said that this is an issue that will be discussed in the meetings and any conclusion will be announced by the President of the Republic himself, who will be real
