Petrol station owners protested outside the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, seeking the President’s intervention over tanker vehicle specifications that have left hundreds of vehicles immobilised. The issue affects more than 300 tankers, according to the association.
Owners are pushing for two things: a new extension to replace their tanker fleet, and government subsidies, since each vehicle costs around €120,000, the association says. The protest march did not affect petrol station operations, which continued serving consumers as normal.
Protesters gathered at 10am in the GSP car park before marching to the Presidential Palace via Iosif Hadjiosif Street and Athalassas Avenue.
The dispute centres on the application of legislation, based on an EU directive, making the ADR system mandatory on tankers. The system allows power to be cut to vehicles carrying dangerous goods in the event of an accident, preventing risks to both those on board and the public. The issue dates back to 2008, when Cyprus decided to apply the EU’s ADR directive for tanker transport on its roads. Each time, however, a temporary arrangement was reached without resolving the matter substantively.
If no solution or compromise is found between the two sides, significant problems could arise in the coming period, since essential services such as hospitals and large businesses requiring substantial fuel quantities, such as tourist accommodation, would be unable to be served.
The Department of Road Transport says petrol station owners had around 17 years to either replace their vehicles or modify them to be certified as ADR-compliant. Giorgos Louka, the department’s director, said: “I believe it was a long transition period which companies, petrol station owners and ADR consultants alike knew about.” He added that they knew the rules would eventually apply in Cyprus too.
Savvas Prokopiou, president of the Pancyprian Petrol Station Owners’ Association, said Tuesday’s protest concerned a Transport Ministry decree dated August 8, 2025. He said the decree requires their tankers to be immobilised, adding that the sides agreed on September 29 that a transitional period was needed, which the government would try to secure for five years through the European Commission. He said the minister halted this, though EU directives require a transitional period from the date a decree is issued.
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