E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said yesterday that the European Commission’s postbag was full of letters from visitors to Cyprus expressing concern for the island’s environment.
Delivering a speech at Nicosia’s Forum Hotel yesterday, Wallstrom, at the end of a two-day visit, also said that between 64 and 126 premature deaths in Cyprus could be avoided each year by applying EU air quality standards.
“One criticism that is constantly levelled at Cyprus is that the rules and regulations that exist are not effectively applied and that when there is conflict between environment and development pressures, then environment loses out,” Wallstrom said. “Once you are inside the EU it won’t be enough to simply have the laws on your statute books – they will have to be effectively enforced.”
Wallstrom, who met President Glafcos Clerides earlier yesterday, said that a recent visit from EU experts had highlighted shortcomings in the ability of Cyprus to enforce EU environmental legislation and made recommendations on how these weaknesses could be addressed.
“The well being of Cyprus depends on tourism and those tourists are drawn by the images in the holiday brochures of golden sand, clear blue water and unspoilt nature. Environment is the cornerstone of this image,” she said.
“But while the tourists are here they also develop their own images and these determine their impression of the country and how they report it back home. You may be surprised if I tell you that the Commission postbag is full of letters from people who have visited your country and many of those letters express environmental concerns on your island. They cover a whole range of issues from threats to areas of natural beauty to the stench from badly managed waste dumps.”
The Commissioner said that in the European Parliament she was regularly asked to respond to questions on Cypriot environmental issues. “All of these things construct an image of Cyprus to those of us who live beyond its coastline,” she said, adding that Cyprus should not underestimate how the way that environmental issues were treated could be transmitted way beyond the island’s shores.
Wallstrom said much was written about how costly it was to implement EU environmental legislation, but insisted that the benefits far outweighed the expense.
“Cyprus has an advantage over other candidate countries in that some of the benefits of environmental protection are already making themselves shown. With your history of water shortages you’ve been forced by circumstances to address the water issue. As I’ve already said, the arrival of over two and a half million visitors is secured by their sense that they are coming to a country with clean water and beaches. So there is a clear benefit to balance any cost,” she said.
Other benefits include those to public health, “cleaner air to breathe, cleaner water to drink and better waste management all improve the well being of the public”.
A recent EU study estimated that by applying EU water legislation Cyprus would benefit from _25 million to _100 million per year.
“In addition to the benefits that can be costed, there are numerous others that cannot be accurately measured in monetary terms,” Wallstrom said, citing benefits to the private sector in terms of productivity and reductions in production and maintenance costs.
“The private sector will play a crucial role in this process. They will be the people who have to take the necessary measures and make the necessary investments,” she said.
“Balancing the need for environmental protection with the pressures to develop is never easy. I wouldn’t say that it is a balance that we’ve always managed to get right inside the Union. You will find yourselves fighting constant battles. But if you can’t preserve the environmental assets of this beautiful isle then you may find that it will be your children who will have to pay the price. You carry a heavy responsibility – charged with protecting not only the natural heritage of Cyprus but also that of the wider European family,” the Commissioner said. “It would be a tragedy of huge proportion if we found ourselves in the situation where the last turtle left in Cyprus was the one on the £10 note! I know that you won’t let that happen!”
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
