The Liberal Initiative (IL) wants to force the minister responsible for the political leadership of the Portuguese presence in the European Union, in the structure of the current government of António Costa, to be present in the European debates in the plenary sessions of the parliament.
In the explanatory memorandum of the IL bill disclosed this Monday, it is read that, since the beginning of this legislature, “in a sense contrary to parliamentary praxis”, the current government of António Costa “is not represented in the European debates in plenary session by a ministerial-level politician.
The XXIII Constitutional Government has a Secretary of State for European Affairs, Tiago Antunes, who is directly supervised by the leader of the Executive. And he is Tiago Antunes who has represented the Government in these debates, which the liberal caucus challenges.
Contrary to what happened in the last legislature, in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs [Augusto Santos Silva] represented the Government in the Committee on European Affairs and in European debates in plenary, there is currently no political official at the ministerial level to fully participate in these occasions“, he points out in this diploma.
However, for IL, “the ministerial representation of the Government in parliamentary debates corresponds to an instrument of political accountability and parliamentary scrutiny.”
With its project, IL wants to make it clear in the law that the Assembly of the Republic monitors and evaluates the Portuguese participation in the process of building the European Union, that is, through an “annual debate in a plenary session that will be held ”. in the first quarter of each year, with the participation of the competent minister in the matter or, alternatively, the prime minister, when he assumes the responsibility of leading the European policy of the country, on the participation of Portugal in the Permanent Structured Cooperation”.
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On the other hand, according to IL, at the beginning of each presidency of the Council of the European Union on the respective priorities, the debate in plenary session must have the participation of the minister responsible for the matter “or, alternatively, the prime minister, when take responsibility for conducting the European policy of the country”.
IL also intends to extend this principle to the plenary debates on the State of the Union, after the respective debate in the European Parliament, to be held in the last quarter of each year, but also to the plenary sessions “on the different instruments of economic governance ”. of the European Union”, which are part of the European Semester, specifically on the Stability and Growth Program, in the second quarter of the year”.
Source: Observadora
