What happens when the state entrusts a local authority with the responsibility of protecting the environment, without providing it with the necessary powers, staff or financial resources to fulfil that responsibility?

Can a local authority be held accountable for problems relating to waste, water, noise or urban development when it does not have the means to address them effectively?

This question has acquired particular significance in Cyprus following the reform of local self-government. The transfer and redistribution of competences have created increased expectations of local authorities and the new district government organisations.

Yet decentralisation cannot be limited to the transfer of responsibilities. To be meaningful, it must be accompanied by the necessary powers and resources.

A new European framework

This is precisely the issue that an important initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe seeks to address.

In October 2025, the Congress called on the Committee of Ministers to consider drawing up an Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government specifically concerning environmental protection at local level.

The European Charter of Local Self-Government enshrines fundamental principles concerning the autonomy, competences and financial resources of local authorities.

The new proposal seeks to give more specific expression to these principles in the field of environmental protection, recognising that municipalities and regional authorities are on the front line in addressing climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

The significance of the proposal lies in the fact that it does not merely seek to impose new obligations. The draft Additional Protocol provides that local authorities should have appropriate competences in environmental matters, as well as adequate financial resources for implementing local action and achieving environmental objectives. It also provides for consultation with local authorities before decisions are taken by state or regional bodies that affect them.

Equally important is the dimension of transparency and participation. The proposal recognises the need for local authorities to have access to environmental information and for citizens to participate in the formulation of environmental policies.

It also provides for a right to judicial protection for local authorities where they consider that the rights afforded to them under the protocol have been infringed.

The challenge for Cyprus

For Cyprus, this discussion should provide an opportunity to take the next step in the reform process.

Every new environmental competence assigned to a municipality or district government organisation should be accompanied by an assessment of its financial and administrative cost and by the provision of the corresponding resources, staff and technical support.

Otherwise, there is a risk that decentralization will become merely a decentralization of responsibility, without any genuine decentralization of power.

At the same time, local authorities should participate in shaping the state’s environmental policies that they are subsequently called upon to implement.

It is institutionally inappropriate to expect local self-government to achieve objectives in waste management, water management, urban planning or the response to climate change if it has not first been given a meaningful voice in their design.

This is where the real challenge for Cyprus lies following the 2024 reform.

Its success should not be judged solely by the new structures that have been created or by the number of competences that have been transferred.

It should be judged in practice by whether the new and reorganized local self-government authorities possess the financial autonomy, expertise, human resources and institutional capacity necessary to exercise their competences effectively.

Proposal

It would therefore be appropriate for every future transfer of environmental competence to local self-government to be accompanied, as a mandatory requirement, by a financial and administrative impact assessment identifying the resources required and the means by which they are to be funded.

At the same time, an effective mechanism for prior consultation with local authorities should be institutionalised before state decisions are taken that directly affect their environmental responsibilities. This would constitute a practical application of the principles promoted by the proposed Additional Protocol.

Ultimately, the Council of Europe’s proposal establishes a simple but fundamental principle: environmental responsibility must be accompanied by a genuine capacity to act.

Environmental protection cannot be decentralised merely as an obligation. Responsibility must be accompanied by the decentralisation of powers, resources and decision-making capacity.

Otherwise, what we have is not meaningful local autonomy, but rather the transfer of responsibility without the means necessary to exercise it.