Today the Congress of Local and Regional authorities of the Council of Europe adopted a report on the state of local democracy Cyprus following a monitoring visit to Nicosia, Kokkinotrimithia, Ayios Dhometios and Paphos in April 2016. It was the third monitoring report since the ratification of the European Charter of Local Self Government by the Republic of Cyprus in 1988.
This document, which was presented by the rapporteur Bernd Vöhringer (Germany, EPP/ECC), underlines the Cypriot government’s political commitment to citizens’ participation in local public affairs and welcomes the fact that in 2012 the Republic of Cyprus signed and ratified the additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self Government, which has to date been ratified by only 14 member states.
Nevertheless, in the adopted recommendation, the Congress expresses its concern with regard to the financial autonomy of local authorities, the weakness and imprecision of the legislative basis for the powers and responsibilities of local authorities and for the conditions under which they are exercised as well as the absence of constitutional safeguards for the principle of local self-government and the status of local authorities. “Only minimal responsibilities are conferred by the relevant law to local authorities and these authorities clearly lack genuine functions” said Mr Vöhringer. (more...)