The Reform of Local Government is not a question of numbers – Article by Neoklis Sylikiotis – AKEL Political Bureau member

 

Sunday 19 December 2021, ‘Haravgi’ newspaper

Lately, with the intervention of the ruling DISY party and the government, discussions on the reform of local government are being led to a setback. This is the case as, after the postponement of the Municipal Elections, we have entered the final stretch of agreeing on the legislative framework for Local Government.

As AKEL, we have been stressing for years that the conditions have matured for us to proceed to a radical reform of local government so that it can overcome its structural problems and meet people’s current needs as a predominantly popular democratic institution. This is the stand we have taken since 2009, when the debate started on the reform, to this today.

AKEL has always considered that local government plays a decisive role in the development and revitalisation of local communities, as well as in the balanced development between urban areas and the periphery. Providing citizens with high-quality services demands administrative decentralisation and structural changes for the proper functioning of local authorities. Our aim therefore is to promote the institutional autonomy of local government, as well as its financial autonomy. That is why the legislation under discussion is based on this framework, which constitutes the very substance of the reform.

At the same time, local government is the power that is closest to people, which also represents the core of its activities. In all modern states, including our own, there is an increasingly urgent need to expand participatory democracy processes and involve people more directly and actively in the co-management and co-formulation of local affairs.

The Anastasiades-DISY government through the Minister of Interior and DISY through its President are trying to lead developments to the cancellation of the reform. The central issue of the reform isn’t the large number of municipalities. On the contrary, if you take into account that in local communities, where 40% of the population lives, local government exists only in name, given that they are almost totally dependent on the central state through the District Administrations.

Therefore, when we talk about reform, we must first of all unify communities with the prospect of transforming them into regional Municipalities with the transfer of powers from the central state so that they can at long last acquire the character of Local Government. At the same time, where necessary, neighbouring communities with common problems and needs should be merged with municipalities and in some cases neighbouring municipalities should be unified. Consequently, with the completion of the reform we will be talking about 50 or 60 municipalities, given that the prospect is that amalgamations of communities will evolve into rural municipalities.

Given that some people are talking about saving resources through the merger of municipalities, it is the creation of District Councils which will bring under their umbrella the various inter-municipal and scattered Sewerage, Water supply and Waste councils, as well as other services, and the creation of the single Urban Planning Authorities, which lead to the creation of an economy of scale for better, higher quality and less costly services.

The debate is wrongly focused on the need for a small number of municipalities by creating oversized municipalities which will in practice nullify the character of Local government. In order for a municipality not to lose its character, there must be population and territorial cohesion. The aim is for local authorities to be in touch with the people and to address their daily needs.

Since many people, especially the government ruling forces, refer to foreign countries and large metropolitan municipalities, I consider that they are unaware of the facts and are misleading the people. For example, in Brussels there are 19 municipalities, and in areas with a compact population. The population of the Brussels metropolitan municipality is approximately 170,000 inhabitants. Is it logical in a Cyprus of 800,000 inhabitants with a sparse population density to create municipalities of 150,000 -200,000 or perhaps even more inhabitants?

Local government through the reform must fully acquire its role through the transfer of competences and responsibilities from the central state. This is the objective of the reform, not the conservative argumentation put forth by the government ruling forces concerning the number of municipalities, which distracts and avoids the substance of the issue.