COMMUNICATIONS Minister Averof Neophytou and trade union representatives locked swords yesterday, but again failed to agree over the future of the nation’s two airports.
The government believes the only way to modernise Larnaca and Paphos airports urgently is to transfer responsibility to private investors.
Trade unions PASYDY, PEO and SEK fear “privatising the airports” will jeopardise the job security of those already employed at Larnaca and Paphos.
“I didn’t succeed in persuading them and neither did they succeed in persuading me,” Neophytou told Cyprus Mail after the afternoon meeting.
Yesterday’s meeting followed a joint session of the parliamentary committees for finance and communications on Monday.
SEK secretary-general Petros Theophanous said he was not convinced by the Minister’s promise that all jobs would be safeguarded under any future airport management.
Nevertheless he said a decision on whether to strike over the matter will be delayed until parliament makes a decision on the future of the airports.
Neophytou criticised the unions for trying to influence political decision making, which he said exceeds their mandate.
“Now, they’re not worried about jobs, they want to intervene in political decisions, which are the responsibility of elected politicians. It is their job to protect the rights of the labour force,” he said.
“Self-financing is the only way to keep airports under government control, secure jobs and the airports’ smooth running. I can’t see why the House wouldn’t approve such a scheme,” said Neophytou.
The state claims that funding the £200 million needed to renovate the airports would violate the Maastricht Treaty and compromise the island’s accession course to full European Union membership.
If the House approves the government’s proposal, then private companies will operate the airports for 20 to 25 years, while the terminals remain state-owned.
Neophytou thinks private contractors could finish the upgrading at both airports by 2004, whereas state bureaucracy could delay work until at least 2010.
Tender applications will be asked to submit their final offers by December 20, and Neophytou hopes a winner will be selected early in 2002.
Further talks between the two sides are on hold until the House decides whether or not to approve the government’s plan.
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.
