Enormous, as it seems, will be the cost for the Republic from not appearing in a court case concerning the works in the Moni-Vassiliko for the service of aquaculture farmers, resulting in the issuance of a decree that temporarily terminates the works. Information from "F" states that the contractor who undertook the project intends to request after the outcome of the case pending in the Administrative Court, compensation that will amount to more than €60,000 for each day when no works are carried out. At the moment, no one knows what will happen with the project that is co-financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, since the outcome of the decree and the trial of the appeal of two organizations are pending.
As "F" wrote, on 8 April the Administrative Court accepted the application of BirdLife Cyprus and the organization Friends of the Earth and issued a provisional decree suspending the projects, both marine and land, in order to protect the Mediterranean monk seal monk seal (monachus monachus). In her decision, Judge A. Zervos had noted the observation that while the application for the issuance of the decree had been delivered by a judicial grantee to both an official of the Department of Urban Planning and the Ministry of the Interior, no appearance was registered by the Legal Service, resulting in the issuance of the provisional decree suspending the works. As recorded in the Court's decision, according to relevant affidavits of the grantee, Mr. K.P., dated 19/3/2025, both the appeal and the interim application for suspension were served on 17/3/2025 on Mr. C.C. at the Ministry of the Interior and Mrs. C.C., at the Department of Urban Planning and Housing, with both of these officials signing the receipt of both the application and the interim application.
No one knows who is responsible for the omission of the appearance registration, however, it seems that it will cost the public hundreds of thousands of euros. The projects have been blocked for over a month and according to a representative of the company that undertook the contract worth €34 million. At the moment, two floating boats, two tugboats, cranes, divers are "sitting", while rents are paid for the accommodation of the workers who came from Greece. He also told "F" that only for concrete they owe a company about €800,000, while there was an agreement with two quarries for the transport of stone that will be deposited into the sea and now the work has stopped.
The mayor of Pentakomos, Giorgos Economou, told "F" that the project should not have been done in the area of the community and the community council was vertically opposed. "After Akamas it is a pristine area, since it is the place where the Mediterranean monk seal nests, there are turtles and it covers the area of Agios Georgios Alamanos and Governers Beach, with the so-called white rocks". As he observed, "we reacted from the beginning because dozens of trucks would pass through the only tourist area we have, which would lift 'ttozi' for this reason and after performances the government secured €600,000 to asphalt the coastal road". Mr. Economou confirmed that the contractor will have demands of €60,000 per day "maybe more" under a contract while the works are stopped. It is noted that the owner of the project is the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research.
After the issuance of the provisional decree, the Legal Service registered an appearance and last Thursday filed three applications: One concerned the suspension of the decree which was rejected, the other for the setting aside of the decree and the third for the involvement of the consortium that undertook the project as an interested party. The Judge reserved the right to decide whether the contractor of the project should be allowed to participate in the proceedings. In the event that this is done, then it is estimated that the application and the application for the interim decree will be requested to be served on the interested parties in order to be heard, which may lead to the annulment of this interim decree. If the request is rejected, then the decree suspending the works will become permanent until the hearing of the appeal of the two non-governmental organizations, which request the annulment of the decision to grant a planning permit for the projects in the area of Moni – Vassiliko.
