Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos on Thursday defended the municipality’s recent decision to partly reopen Makarios avenue to regular traffic, arguing that it was done to breathe life back into the city centre.

Earlier this month municipal councilors had voted for the central Nicosia street to reopen for traffic. Makarios avenue is to reopen to all private vehicles on weekdays between 7am and 9pm.

Meanwhile between 9pm and 7am on weekdays and on weekends, the avenue will be used only by authorised vehicles – buses, taxis, residents and employees of the area, as it had been until now.

The new traffic arrangements will apply from the Lycavitos police station up to and including Solomou square.

The European Commission had co-funded the restoration of Makarios avenue on condition that it restricted traffic. The cash had come from the Cohesion Fund, part of a programme promoting ‘sustainable urban mobility’.

In parliament on Thursday, it remained unclear what steps, if any, Brussels might take against the municipality. Speculated measures include asking for the return of its share of funding – said to be €21 million – or even branding the municipality as an unreliable partner, making Nicosia ineligible for future EU funds.

The Green party spoke of an arbitrary move by Nicosia municipality, asking on what data it based its decision to reopean Makarios avenue to traffic.

Responding, the mayor said they had carried out “a qualitative survey with a structured questionnaire” that found that current traffic arrangements on and around the street are inhibiting visitations to the city centre.

Other inhibiting factors are the high rents in the area. Prountzos said he hoped parliament would take decisions to ensure that the city centre “does not fall hostage to about ten owners”, as he put it.

If commercial use is to grow in the city centre, steps must be taken to increase the population density there.

The mayor said the municipal council had examined several options for the avenue before making its decision.

Regarding the financing of the EU-funded improvement works, he expressed the view that the coming changes to traffic did not violate the terms.

But the municipality was waiting for feedback from Brussels.

An official with the European Commission Representation in Cyprus said that, in their opinion, the proposed traffic changes do constitute a material modification of the sustainable mobility project for Nicosia’s city centre.

For his part, a police official said they have yet to be formally notified by the municipality about the latter’s decision.

The police chief must sign off on any new traffic arrangements.

The House transport committee will revisit the matter in two weeks’ time.