Filenews 28 May 2022 - byVassos Vassiliou
In the name of the Cypriot economy and the imposition of SANCTIONS by the EU, the Government legitimizes by law facilities, without planning permission or building permit and a certificate of final approval, including slaughterhouses, pig farms, poultry farms, power plants of EAC, biogas plants, waste management units, etc. The relevant bill was approved by the Council of Ministers on May 4, 2022. In a text accompanying the bill it is stated that "the prohibition of operation for some facilities is impossible (EAC, landfills, slaughterhouses, etc.) and for others it will have a significant impact on the economy of the area (livestock farms, waste treatment plants and industries).
The same text acknowledges the illegal operation of the installations that will be covered by the legislation promoted with the following reference: "Based on the provisions of Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions (IED Directive), no installation can operate without the possession of an Industrial Emissions Permit (S.A.). However, a large number of existing installations are unable to obtain an Industrial Emissions Permit (SA) due to urban planning problems, even though they meet the environmental criteria of the relevant Directive. This results from the fact that these are facilities that have been in operation for decades, with the result that the planning and/or building permits secured during the initial operation have expired and the issuance of approval certificates is impossible, either due to changes in the installation or due to other problems.
As mentioned in the accompanying text, the purpose of the Bill is to amend the Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Laws of 2013 to 2021, so as to allow the granting of SA by the Minister of Agriculture to a large number of facilities (such as EAC power stations, biogas plants, waste management units, slaughterhouses, pig farms and poultry farms, etc.), which, while meeting the environmental criteria, cannot obtain an SA due to non-possession of a valid and valid planning permit or a building permit or a certificate of approval. The accompanying text also states that the adoption of the above amending Bill is considered necessary as it will allow the granting of SA to a large number of facilities and will help in the immediate resolution of the problem of non-compliance with the IED Directive.
Any non-approval and non-timely passage of the Bill by the House of Representatives is estimated, according to the same text, to result in severe sanctions against the Republic of Cyprus.
The Bill gives a reasonable amount of time to the competent authorities of the state to resolve the above legal impasse.
