The adoption of essential and legally binding terms of the Special Ecological Assessment Report and the Strategic Environmental Assessment Opinion issued by the Environmental Authority for the Akama Local Plan should be binding, according to the Council of the Department of Non-Governmental Civil Affairs.
The Department also decided to create a new Undergraduate Program in Environmental Engineering.
Among other things, the Department said in a statement that “in such an important political decision for the ecological future of the country, there should be full transparency and unhindered access to critical information available on the Akama Local Plan itself.”/p>
He adds that “transparency is in the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law in a European benevolent state – principles enshrined and protected by both national and European Laws as well as International Conventions and therefore the Departments, Services and Committees that assess environmental Impact of the Local Plan, must necessarily have access to the Local Plan itself for proper evaluation “.
The PMP of the University of Cyprus also states that” the adoption of essential and legally binding terms of the The Ecological Assessment and the Strategic Environmental Assessment Opinion issued by the Environmental Authority should be binding. “
Concluding, he notes that taking into account “all the major environmental problems that have emerged in the public sphere and the impact on communities and people, has given high priority to the institutional upgrade of Environmental Engineering in the country” and in this context approved the creation of a new Undergraduate Program in Environmental Engineering at the Department of Environmental Engineering, the first program in this field of Engineering in Cyprus.
Landowners blame environmental organizations
However, the president of the Association of Akamas Landowners and Akamas Communities in a written statement denounced “the Environmental Organizations for direct intervention in the work of the Director of the Department of Environment Mr. Costas Hatzipanagiotou, who in a written letter to the Authority not to give a positive opinion regarding the Akama Local Plan “.
“We consider”, he adds, “this letter as a blatant intervention to a serious State Service which with documented studies and scholars is called to give its position”.
“These interventions”, he continues, ” show the reason why the joint meeting of the Committees on Interior and Environment was organized by AKEL and the Movement of Ecologists in an attempt to extract from the Minister of Interior, Mr. Nikos Nouri, the Local Plan Akamas, so that then they have the opportunity to denounce it to The Local Plan should be dropped as well. ” “As an Association of Akama Landowners and Akama Communities”, he concludes, “we never interfere in any way in the work of the Services dealing with Local Plan and we have always asked with strict scientific criteria to take decisions which are always within the framework of our legislation and our Constitution “.
