AKEL will stand against Akamas’ path of destruction

The revised local plan for the Akamas peninsula, which is expected to be made public in June, as the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment has stated, will have devastating consequences for the peninsula.

According to the published revised Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment, the legally binding and essential terms contained in the Environmental Authority’s Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment Opinion for the protection of Akamas are not being adopted by the planning council, in breach of the legislative framework.

In addition, with this we have been informed that on June 9 the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee will convene in haste to issue a final opinion.

AKEL expresses its deep concerns and raises a number of questions to which both the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of the Interior must respond to.

– Why are the procedures being accelerated?

– Why have the terms of the opinion of the Environment Department and the other competent Departments not been included?

We remind the relevant Ministry that the opinion of the Environment Department is legally binding.

This is not the first time that the Anastasiades-DISY government is attempting to promote specific, powerful private interests through non-transparent and illegal procedures.

AKEL will stand against any attempt in this direction. The President of the Republic and the ruling DISY party must respect the communities and residents of the area and at the same time apply European and national Law and its provisions regarding the protection of nature.