CIVIL Media spoke with the Mayor of the Municipality of Karpos, Stefan Bogoev, about European values, green initiatives, the need of new buildings in the municipality, as well as about the awareness of the citizens in regards to environmental protection and sustainability.
“If I have to point out three European values, they would be transparency, inclusiveness and solidarity, which we as a municipality showed to our neighbour Greece during the fires, but we also try often to initiate humanitarian actions whenever we can. If solidarity is a European value and distinction, it is also my personal distinction as a Social Democrat, and it is also a feature of the Municipality of Karpos. You know that the municipality was built from worldwide solidarity after the earthquake”, stated Bogoev, highlighting at the same time the projects they are working on and the involvement of citizens in them.
Reminding that the Municipality of Karpos is one of the oldest, urbanized municipalities, Bogoev finds it natural for the residents to have a developed awareness on what European values mean.
“I have to be a little critical when we talk about European values and put emphasis particularly on a healthy environment and greenery, and say that everyone should start from themselves. Unfortunately, we as a municipality had much work in the past months in cleaning up the waste that is being thrown all around. We also have much work with writing numerous penalties for negligent citizens who do not treat the environment and the area in which they live in accordingly. It is not enough just to say declaratively that we respect European values and then to arrive to the nearest park and throw a whole wagon of rubbish from the bathroom we renovated at home”, stated Bogoev, appealing to the citizens to be careful, because the municipality and municipal services will be strict and will punish in this respect.
The Municipality of Karpos will try to implement the positive approach to the greenery by bringing new urban plans according to which a certain area of every construction lot will have to have greenery. And if due to objective reasons there is no such possibility, as Bogoev explained, it will be carried out as vertical or roof greenery by the investor.
“In the context of maintaining a healthy environment, we also introduced weekend services that are supposed to clean the municipality, because we inherited quite an uncleaned municipality with garbage accumulated for months, not to say for years. We also procured a new truck for picking up garbage. We will do what we as a municipality should do, but if all of us together do
not maintain the place where we live, then there is no municipality, no mayor, no city or state service that will manage to clean up everything the citizens litter”, said Bogoev.
As to the question if it is possible to compensate for the green areas that have been lost, Bogoev believes that much time will be needed, lost in the past because of the interests of construction companies and private owners.
“The Law on greenery that has been adopted in parliament, to which I was also a proposer, will legally limit how much greenery can be destroyed for someone to realize a personal or private interest…The private investors can build, as long as it is done humanely and in a normal way, and not savagely for profits of others, whereas the state land is an area where we can build new green areas…”, stated Bogoev.
According to the Mayor, the Municipality of Karpos has the need of new buildings, state ones primarily, because in areas in Karpos that are not developed there is yet to be construction and that would mean that private investors too will construct, but the task of the municipality will be for those constructions not to impose harm to the citizens who live in those same areas. The conversation is part of the “Action – Integration” project in cooperation with the Heinrich Bὅll Foundation from Germany.
Biljana Jordanovska
Camera: Dehran Muratov
This post is also available in: Macedonian
