By Andreas Pasiourtides
- AKEL Member of Parliament for Larnaca, Left Social Alliance
With the latest developments regarding the much-discussed issue of the Port and Marina of Larnaca, an issue that has been ongoing for some time, all of the current government’s plans and promises to the people of Larnaca have once again been overturned.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The President of the Republic has stated that there is a political decision by the government for the Cyprus Ports Authority to develop the Port, the Marina, and the surrounding land area.
According to the position and legal opinion of the Legal Service, it was noted that the Larnaca Marina and part of the land area are state-owned, and in order for them to be granted for development purposes, the state must issue a public call for bids, and, if the Cyprus Ports Authority so desires, it may submit a bid.
The result of this legal opinion is that it overturns the entire plan and roadmap presented by the Ministry of Transportation and the Port Authority last summer in Larnaca, and it also undermines both the government’s promise and its policy decision.
There are many questions that arise, but the most pressing one for the people of Larnaca is this: How much due diligence is required of a President before announcing a project in a district, to ensure that it can actually be carried out? Unless the President knew from the outset that what he was promising could not be realized—in which case, we do not know which of the two scenarios is worse.
The President, on numerous occasions—most recently during a meeting with the Mayor of Larnaca, the president of the Larnaca Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the president of the Larnaca Chamber of Commerce, as well as the former Minister of Transportation— in a meeting with members of Parliament and the Larnaca City and District Development Committee, have stated that a policy decision has been made, the roadmap has been approved, and we are moving forward with the development of the port, marina, and land area by the Ports Authority.
Today, we are being told that this can only be done for the port.
We ask the relevant authorities, and especially the President of the Republic, to find a way to implement this policy decision. After all, what essentially needs to happen is for the central government and a state agency, such as the Ports Authority, to agree on how the government will proceed with the development.
Otherwise, any one of us—and the rest of the people of Larnaca—is justified in believing that everything the current government promised us was just to silence us, to quell our reactions at the time, and that it, like the previous one, is making fools of us.
