The Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, said this Friday that the decentralization of powers in the social area will require legislative changes so that the new powers of local entities are accompanied by the necessary financial means.
We are going to make changes in the legislation so that the transfers are made with the appropriate means”, Ana Abrunhosa told journalists, in Coimbra, at the end of a meeting with the president, Luísa Salgueiro, and other leaders and technicians of the National Association Municipalities of Portugal (National Association of Municipalities of Portugal). ANMP).
In general, observed the guardianship minister, “it is at the moment of receiving the competences when the concrete difficulties are perceived” of the process.
However, he added, “We already know the changes [da legislação] what we have to do in the social area”.
That decentralization be carried out with the confidence that the social response is appropriate to social reality”, in each of the 308 Portuguese municipalities, defended the Minister of Territorial Cohesion.
Citing the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Welfare, Ana Mendes Godinho, who at that time was participating in another meeting with the ANMP, at the association’s headquarters, Ana Abrunhosa said that her colleague understands that the negotiation of the process in this area it can become “municipality the municipality”.
In his opinion, it is important that the new powers “strengthen the social area in these municipalities”as of January 1, 2023, the date on which, at this level, all municipalities must apply the regime resulting from decentralization.
Ana Abrunhosa highlighted that the difficulties are diverse and vary from municipality to municipality, regardless of their size and geographic location.
We cannot focus decentralization only on funds”, he stressed, in response to one of the journalists, giving the example of the protocols that only some municipalities have, at the local level, with the private institutions of social solidarity (IPSS).
The transfer of powers from the Central Administration to the municipal councils in the social area “does not obey the same rules”, which requires “a closer look” on the part of the ANMP and the Government, forcing, according to Ana Abrunhosa, to “if necessary, to work city by city”, as Minister Ana Mendes Godinho admits.
For her part, Luísa Salgueiro, president of the ANMP board, said that today’s meetings with members of the government “met their objectives”, as they confirmed “the main problems already detected”, and that there are still other meetings related to decentralization . .
In September, the board of directors will carry out a new “national tour” of the members of the ANMP, although this diagnosis “already points to many of the difficulties,” said the also president of the Matosinhos City Hall, in the Metropolitan Area of Porto.
Source: Observadora
