Commission warning letter about the NATURA regions
Statement by the AKEL Environment Bureau on the Commission’s warning letter about the environmental law in Cyprus
AKEL C.C. Press O0ffice, 3RD December 2019, Nicosia
The Republic of Cyprus is facing dozens of accusations about the non-implementation of Community laws regarding the protection of Nature. Following warning letters sent by the European Commission, it opened a file on numerous issues for our country.
The main problem we face as a state is the failure to carry out Environmental Impact Studies on various projects with all that this entails. The Commission has sent warning letters about the violation of this article.
The non-application of the relevant article of the Directive is observed in projects of all sizes, from roads to hotels, from golf courses to wind farms and photovoltaic parks. In recent years we have witnessed many such irregularities of development in the protected caves in Pegeia village in the absence of Management Plans for the Natura regions, with the most pronounced the effort underway to reduce even further the protected areas of Akamas. Furthermore, we have seen licenses issued for the construction of tall buildings without the necessary studies conducted and so much more.
It is incomprehensible that the competent government departments authorize licenses for such large-scale projects, whether unknowingly or following instructions, in order to serve the DISY-Anastasiades government and the interests of big development companies, without carrying out the necessary studies and, in particular, cumulative impact studies.
AKEL has for quite some time sounded the alarm bells about the uncontrolled construction and bypassing of legal procedures. In addition, such projects cannot be examined as units and outside of a comprehensive plan.
As long as the government’s sole concern is to satisfy big private interests, such phenomena will unfortunately be a daily phenomenon.
