Common concerns are expressed by AKEL and the Green Party regarding the government’s handling of the Akamas issue.
Stefanos Stefanou and Giorgos Perdikis, heads of delegations, met on Tuesday at AKEL’s offices to discuss a memorandum sent by the Green Party to the government regarding its handling of the Akamas peninsula.
AKEL’s General Secretary, Stefanos Stefanou, stated, “We had a very constructive and informative meeting regarding the Akamas issue and agreed to continue to stay in touch to see how we will proceed with the developments there.”
He added, “The Republic of Cyprus has been subject to strict criticism regarding the need to comply with European directives concerning habitats, and unfortunately, every time the issue was raised in the European Parliament, the criticism we received as a country was severe.”
As the General Secretary of AKEL stated, “Recently, the European Commission initiated legal proceedings against the Republic of Cyprus for its non-compliance, and we believe that the timing has to do with what happened regarding Akamas, as we had observed it, with the projects, the suspension of the projects, etc.”
He mentioned that “AKEL has raised the issue in cooperation with the Green Party in Parliament and in the relevant Committee for discussion.”
Regarding the administrative investigations concerning Akamas, AKEL’s General Secretary said, “There was one, then a second which led to the suspension of the projects, however, this second administrative investigation has not been published, we do not know its content, we have requested it, and based on parliamentary procedures.”
“Without knowing what this investigation entails, the Government announced that it will conduct a third one, and we wonder since we haven’t seen the second one yet, what will happen with the third,” said AKEL’s General Secretary.
“We believe that the Government should inform based on the administrative investigation’s findings, what the findings are because it is based on the findings that the necessary corrections should be made and all actions that will lead to the protection of the Akamas habitat should be taken, based on the principles that should govern all these habitat-related issues,” AKEL’s General Secretary added.
AKEL’s General Secretary reassured that “as a party, we will continue to monitor the situation in cooperation with the Green Party and environmental organizations, with which we have been coordinating and collaborating for some time.”
On his part, Perdikis stated that they informed AKEL “about the memoranda we submitted to the President of the Republic and the Minister of Agriculture.”
He noted that “unfortunately, we do not consider that there has been a positive response from the Government to the main issues we raised in these memoranda, despite the fact that we are pleased to note that the ecological assessment issued recently partly satisfies our requests and proposals regarding the construction projects already carried out in Akamas, which are considered destructive to the habitat.”
As the President of the Green Party said, “We insist that the issue of the form and degree of protection of the Akamas area should be opened, the level of protection should be upgraded to establish a real national park, based on international standards, and the philosophy of the road network should change so that public transportation is promoted instead of mass private access to the Akamas area, which is primarily a nature reserve for us.”
Regarding the administrative investigations, Perdikis said, “What is happening is a mockery,” stating that “two administrative investigations have been conducted, which the Government itself deemed unsatisfactory, and now a third one has begun involving officials who may be involved in implementing the new decisions.”
He added, “The Auditor-General is waiting for the administrative investigation to issue his own report on Akamas, the Parliament is waiting for the Auditor-General’s investigation to complete its own investigation on Akamas and the construction plans, and the Government is still conducting one administrative investigation after another to determine if there are administrative, disciplinary, or criminal responsibilities regarding the destructive projects in Akamas, which, according to our position, were carried out illegally.”
Therefore, Perdikis said, “together we express our concern about the government’s handling of the Akamas issue, closely monitor and note the European interest, with Cyprus being led by the EU to the European Court of Justice.”
In conclusion, he expressed appreciation “that there is a good ground for cooperation with AKEL on this very important environmental issue, which is the protection of nature in the Akamas peninsula.”
