All political parties are expressing concerns and reservations regarding the amendment bill on the municipal solid waste landfill tax, which will be put to a vote in the Plenary Session on Tuesday. Two parties, ELAM and Alma, are already opposed to it, while DISY, AKEL, DIKO, and Direct Democracy told CNA that they will make their final decision on Tuesday morning, noting, however, that they have serious reservations about the issue.

The regulations call for a fee of €10 per metric ton of waste sent to landfills by the end of 2027, with a gradual increase of €5 per metric ton annually from 2028 until reaching a maximum of €70 per metric ton.

This measure is part of the green tax reform and aims to reduce the percentage of municipal waste sent to landfills from approximately 68% today to 10% by 2035, in line with European targets. At the same time, it is a milestone of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the approval of the relevant legislation is a prerequisite for the disbursement of €23 million from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which will be added to the €25 million already committed through the “THALIA” program, bringing the total funding for waste management projects to €48 million.

On behalf of DISY, MP Andreas Konstantinou told CNA that the issue will be discussed on Tuesday morning at a meeting of the DISY parliamentary group. “I believe it will be very difficult for us to vote in favor,” he said. Referring to a statement he made last week, he said that before the relevant legislation is implemented, the “Pay-As-You-Fly” system should have been implemented first, noting that the state bears “serious responsibility” for its non-implementation.

AKEL MP Nikos Kettiros told CNA that the party’s final decision will be made on Tuesday at the parliamentary group meeting. “However, we view the regulations and the imposition of new taxes with great caution, since the executive branch failed to do what it should have done in previous years and now wants to shift the burden of responsibility onto the citizens’ pockets,” he said.

The Chair of the Environment Committee and ELAM MP, Linos Papagiannis, said that ELAM opposes the bill and will vote against it. “The most important reason is that we believe this new tax will not help solve the problem. It will tie us even more closely to Europe, and our assessment is that, even if we receive the funds, we will not be able to meet their requirements, and the damage will be many times greater,” he said, adding in conclusion that a huge burden will remain on the shoulders of the citizens.

DIKO will discuss the issue with its parliamentary group on Tuesday morning. As the party’s MP, Chrysanthos Savvides, told CNA, “this is a very important issue, and we will weigh all the facts.”

Odysseas Michaelides, President and Member of Parliament for the Alma Movement, told CNA that Alma will vote against the bill on the landfill tax, “because we do not accept that the cost of a long-standing and serious failure by the Department of the Environment in the planning and implementation of waste management policy should be passed on to citizens.”

As he said, the necessary infrastructure and viable alternatives that would allow such a tax to function as an environmental incentive are lacking. “Without effective source separation, adequate separate collection, and integrated management facilities, the tax will not lead to more recycling nor will it substantially reduce landfilling. It will simply be an additional financial burden,” said Mr. Michaelides.

He added that citizens “cannot be made to pay either for the long-standing failures of the Department of the Environment or for the decision by the Anastasiades and Christodoulides administrations to include the tax in the Recovery and Resilience Planwithout first ensuring the appropriate infrastructure and the necessary alternatives.”

Yiannis Laouris, a member of parliament for Direct Democracy, told CNA that “we are being asked to make a decision within an extremely tight timeframe,” while expressing concern that all the relevant agencies, which will be called upon to implement this specific measure, “have made it clear to us that they do not have the necessary infrastructure and, consequently, are essentially unable to implement it effectively.”

He also noted that the imposition of this tax will, initially, create additional costs for the relevant authorities and waste management agencies, which will inevitably be passed on to citizens, while, as a society, we have not yet developed the necessary waste management culture to the required degree, he noted.

“A key prerequisite for the success of any such measure is the separation of waste at the source—that is, in the places where it is generated and, first and foremost, in households,” said Mr. Laouris, noting that there is a serious risk of simply placing the burden on citizens without effectively addressing the problem.

As he stated, the parliamentary group of Direct Democracy will meet on Tuesday morning to evaluate the facts and make its final decisions.

Source: CNA