Local administration in Cyprus entered a new era on Monday, with newly elected district governors leading this huge step in the long-awaited reform.
To mark what has been hailed as an “historic day”, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou held a press conference, during which he announced that President Nikos Christodoulides was planning a tour of the districts to see the reform in action.
The interior minister also announced that in September he would be launching a series of talks with all interested parties to measure progress, solve problems and close gaps.
Outlining the purpose of modernisation, which simplifies procedures and makes navigating the services more user-friendly and effective, Ioannou said a lot of preparations had already been made and that, following a transitional period, the public would stand to gain.
Ioannou, along with the permanent secretary of the interior ministry and representatives of the unions of municipalities and communities, expressed certainty that the new structure would be to the benefit of the public.
They said that initial teething issues were to be expected and expressed determination to address them as they arose.
“This day can be described as historic for the local administration of our country,” Ioannou said.
“After decades of discussions, today marks the official implementation of the grand reform of local administration, which comes to reform the administrative map of Cyprus and aspires to improve the daily life of residents,” he said.
“Sixty-three communities and 20 municipalities are joined and create 20 new local administration authorities, so that in time they can achieve their administrative and financial autonomy.”
He added that 30 complexes would upgrade the organisational structure of the communities.
On a district level, the new umbrella organisations, which would be responsible for development permits, was “the biggest challenge for the interior ministry”.
The minister said that the organisations had already begun issuing planning and building permits.
He pointed out that the 326 employees in planning and building permit departments were now working under one unified department, along with an additional 70 people as temporary staff.
Asked if the reform plus the additional staff would effectively address the backlog of some 30,000 applications, Ioannou conceded it would “take time” and that these applications were pending before the reform took place.
“The proposed reform is definitely better than the system we had so far but is not ideal. We, the government, have found some weaknesses which we believe need reevaluating and I know that this has also been done by the political parties,” he said.
“For this reason, always in cooperation with the parliamentary parties, my intention is to begin a series of talks in September, to lay down all the points that need revising and find solutions together, which will substantively improve the new local administration framework.”
Ioannou also referred to the president’s upcoming tour.
President of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities Andreas Vyras said the unions could not be absent from the planned meetings and that their views should and must be taken into consideration.
He pointed out that this reform may not be ideal, but “it is definitely a step forward.”
“It is not the end of the road. Local administration is not static,” Vyras added.
However, he expressed reservations regarding the responsibility for planning and building permits being transferred exclusively to the new district organisations, saying that the municipalities should have a decisive say in which projects are approved.
President of the Limasol branch of the Union of Cyprus Communities Lefteris Perikli said a decade or more of efforts was now taking on solid form.
“This is the beginning. Challenges can be expected, but with cooperation they can be addressed,” he said.
He also said it was necessary for the communities to get even more state funding than they were already receiving, to which the interior minister replied by pointing out that a budget of €700 million for a ten-year period had already been earmarked for the mountainous areas.
