CHAIRMAN of the Municipalities Union (MU), mayor of Limassol Andreas Christou, yesterday accused President Tassos Papadopoulos of failing to fulfil his 2003 electoral pledge to increase state funding to local government.
Christou was speaking at a news conference, “prompted by President Tassos Papadopoulos’ letter to the MU which, for the first time, expressed the official position of the government towards the issue.”
In 2007, the newly-elected Executive committee of the MU sent a letter positing the urgent need for an increase in state funding from 1.49 per cent of GDP (agreed in 2002) to four per cent.
“The increase is vital to municipalities in their effort to carry out our responsibilities, which have multiplied with our entry into the EU,” Christou emphasised.
The 2.5 per cent increase had been promised by Papadopoulos in his effort to be elected President in 2003.
From his previous post as Interior Minister of the Papadopoulos government between 2003 and 2006, Christou said that he had told the MU that the increase could not have occurred during the first two years, but would nonetheless come through by the time the five year term was over.
After several aborted efforts by the MU in the second half of last year – including meetings with the President, Finance Minister Michalis Sarris and Interior Minister Christos Patsalides – the President replied on December 27.
Christou said that in the letter, Papadopoulos had effectively informed the MU “of the government’s unilateral decision to abolish the 2000 agreement that there should be a linkage between GDP and state funding towards municipalities”.
In the letter, Papadopoulos expressed his doubt “as to whether the election season is the appropriate time for the government to manifest and announce a policy which would bind the new government on such an important long-term issue.”
“I am not one to be affected by electioneering in long-term policy,” the letter concluded, “and, although such a measure would prove popular, this is not my primary concern.”
Christou responded by wondering “whether the issue of the transference of the building coefficient from the north is a less serious concern than those of the municipalities.
“Why should that issue warrant a pre-election commitment?” he questioned.
“The letter also insinuates that state funding for city planning, such as the new Limassol highway, should be included as part of the state’s funding for the municipalities.”
“Should this novel notion come into effect,” added Christou, “the municipalities would end up being in severe debt to the state.”
Thus the demands of the MU are threefold: the continuance in law of the linkage between GDP and state funding towards municipalities; the continued exclusion of city planning costs from overall state funding towards municipalities; and an increase of the percentage of state funding as promised by Papadopoulos before coming to power.
Speaking later in the day after a meeting with Nicosia mayor Eleni Mavrou, DISY Chairman Nicos Anastassiades said that he was “saddened to learn of the government’s broken promises towards the MU.”
“Decentralisation by giving municipalities more power is the European way, and we have committed ourselves to fulfilling it” if DISY’s presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides is elected, Anastassiades added.
