Cyprus appears to be heading toward the same outdated policy choices, through the proposal to route a road through Athalassa Park — the last major green lung of Nicosia.

Despite Cyprus consistently ranking near the bottom of all EU environmental assessments, this proposal remains on the table, with parliamentary parties strongly opposing what they describe as a backward step.

The matter was examined ex officio in the House Interior Committee, following a request by DIKO MP Christiana Erotokritou.

The parties that took a position expressed serious reservations about the project, stressing that any intervention in the Athalassa National Forest Park would lead to irreversible environmental and social impacts.

Committee Chair Aristos Damianou made clear that Parliament has no intention of accepting any urban-planning design that could burden the natural or urban environment.

“We are not convinced that all alternatives have been exhausted. It is the easy solution to increase traffic flow, but the real goal should be solving problems without sacrificing green lungs,” he said.

He stressed that, under the current circumstances, the specific project “cannot and should not go ahead.”

DIKO MP Christiana Erotokritou warned that allowing the road to pass through Athalassa Park would be an irreversible mistake.

“Athalassa National Forest Park is the largest green lung of Nicosia, and any intervention concerns not only the residents of Aglantzia but the entire capital,” she noted, adding that “in 2025 it is unthinkable to reduce the size of national forest parks in order to build more roads.”

Regarding the project’s funding, which has been included in the 2026 state budget, Erotokritou announced that DIKO will submit an amendment to have the allocation crossed out.

“As we do every year, we will block the related expenditure. But the issue is not only fiscal; it is broader—political and social—namely, what kind of city we want to leave to our children,” she said.

She emphasised that her party supports the expansion, not the reduction, of national forest parks.

Green Party MP Charalambos Theopemptou claimed that “for decades Town Planning has been trying to run roads through the Athalassa Park.”

He reminded the Committee that in the past asphalt works were carried out within the park without permits, while expressing the view that the current proposal “is a continuation of a grander plan that includes new junctions, including at the entrance to Nicosia.”

“The Government says the road will not pass through the park, but if you visit the Town Planning website, you will see the design clearly marked inside the park,” he said, noting that the parties will move to freeze the relevant budget allocation.

Stelios Ioannou, representative of the Initiative for Aglantzia, stated that the issue has concerned residents since 1992 and that the project under discussion forms part of a wider plan to create a large junction in Stavrou. This, he said, would direct even more traffic into the centre of Aglantzia and Nicosia.

“The logic of ‘where traffic increases, we build new roads’ is outdated. Today, European cities are reducing car flow and giving space back to people,” he said, citing examples from Utrecht, Paris and Barcelona.