Admire the state: how it recycles its own inertia

Opinion accidentcypruslawnatura 2000 Admire the state: how it recycles its own inertia Kipriako Kratos Europi Relevant News Admire the state: how it recycles its own inertia 20 August 2026 He wanted to exist only on paper 20 August 2026 South Korea estimates North Korea has up to 120 nuclear warheads, far above Trump’s figure 20 August 2026 Giorgos Kallinikou 20 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The backwater mentality running the Cypriot state remains, sadly, monumental. Irresponsibility, indifference, negligence, and a pace of implementation slower than a tortoise: these are its trademarks. All of this comes at a cost. In some cases, a huge one. And it is always the taxpaying citizen who foots the bill. Two separate cases that came to light in recent days capture this sorry reality in striking fashion. They invite us to admire our glorious state! The first concerns Natura 2000 areas. The Republic knew for years that it had serious outstanding obligations when it came to setting specific conservation targets. The European Commission warned. The Law Office warned. The Audit Office warned. And still, the matter was allowed to reach the Court of Justice of the European Union. The story is outrageous. Warning signs go back to 2013. A formal infringement procedure opened in 2016. By 2021, the European Commission had flagged the shortcomings, while the Audit Office warned of the risk of referral. There were assurances. The decrees were being issued gradually, they said. Between 2021 and 2024, only ten were issued. Half of those were judged inadequate. And in the end, what had been signalled all along duly arrived: Cyprus was referred to the CJEU. This is no longer a simple administrative backlog. The CJEU’s recent ruling on Ireland raises serious questions about whether projects can be lawfully licensed in Natura areas at all, without specific, measurable conservation targets having first been set. The Audit Office’s response is entirely right and entirely expected. It is calling not only for the outstanding matters to be resolved, but for responsibility to be examined among the officials involved. That is precisely the point that matters. When, after years of warnings, letters and assurances, the outcome is referral to Europe’s highest court, we cannot simply keep looking at whether the paperwork is moving. There is responsibility here, and someone, finally, needs to answer for it. Now, the second case. Parliament passed new legislation on recreational boating six months ago, a law aimed at bringing order to a wide range of activities involving every kind of vessel. The recent jet-ski accident brought a painful truth to light. Six months on, the law is still hanging in the air. It has not been implemented, and nobody even knows when it will be. We are not claiming the delay in implementing the new law caused the recent serious sea accident in Pernera. In fact, according to the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, the core provisions on operator age and licensing already applied under the previous framework. The real issue lies elsewhere. We pass a law, and then whether or when it actually comes into force is left to the whim of whoever happens to be responsible for taking the necessary steps. This is the real problem with this state. Not one specific law. Not one specific official. The mentality. We have learned to believe that the job is done the moment a notice is issued, a law passed, or an assurance given. Well, it isn’t. That is exactly where the job begins. A decree that isn’t issued is a backlog. A law that isn’t implemented is half a job. A warning that goes ignored is a failure. And a failure with no consequences is an open invitation to repeat it. That is precisely why the Audit Office’s call for accountability cannot be left to disappear into the correspondence shuffled between departments and ministries. It needs a clear answer, and it needs a result. Otherwise, accountability will remain a fine word trotted out in press releases, never once applied in practice. And that, in the end, is the whole point. Every single time a state service fails, we cannot keep reaching for the same failed recipe: warnings, letters, meetings, assurances, new dates, and yet another extension. That is not basic, functioning state administration. It is the recycling of inertia. As long as no one is held accountable for the delays, as long as no one genuinely bears the cost of a failure, and as long as responsibility keeps vanishing into the faceless machinery of the state, nothing is going to change. A system that fails to penalise inertia is, in effect, rewarding it. Cyprus needs concrete results. It needs accountability, responsibility, and consequences where they are due. It needs a state that gets ahead of problems, not one that only stirs into action once a problem has already become a crisis, a European condemnation, or a bill handed to the taxpayer. If this vicious cycle isn’t broken now, nothing in Cyprus is going to change. And at that point, the problem will no longer be bureaucracy, or irresponsibility. It will be that we have simply accepted inertia as the norm. A country that treats it as normal for no one to be held responsible for the state’s failures, and that keeps this failed model of governance limping along, cannot expect anything other than to keep being exposed, and to keep making its citizens pay the price. 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