The National Association of Marketers and Exporters of Wines and Spirits (ANCEVE) criticized this Sunday the extinction of the regional services of the Ministry of Agriculture, considering it “an irreversible step” and called for the resignation of the minister in charge.
The association questions, in a statement, “the abusive, undemocratic and absolutely unacceptable measure now announced by the Government”, in the sense of extinguishing the regional services of the Ministry of Agriculture on the continent and centralizing them in the Coordination and Regional Development Commissions ( CCDR).
The association warned that, “without having resources in each region, as now surprisingly announced, the Ministry of Agriculture will limit itself to being a bureaucratic and ineffective giant in Terreiro do Paço (strictly speaking, since that is where it is headquartered), without a real knowledge of what happens in each region”.
“Having the certainty that Agriculture is an essential axis of the national economy and in particular in the productive occupation of the territory and in the fight against desertification of the interior, we are very concerned that the Ministry is being dismantled and emptied step by step, in the hands of a politically irrelevant minister, who is not recognized by the sector or by her peers and whose maintenance in that place represents a tremendous casting error on the part of the Prime Minister”, he criticized.
In this sense, the association demanded “the urgent replacement” of Minister Maria do Céu Antunes by “someone with knowledge of the sector, whom the sector respects and with political weight, who protects, not a weakened Ministry, without strategy and without direction, but a new Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development”.
It also highlights that the Regional Directorates of Agriculture fulfill “essential functions”, of serving and supporting thousands of producers, promoting specific knowledge for each regional reality, managing funds to support Agriculture, among many others.
For the association that represents dozens of companies that produce and export wines and liquors in the main demarcated regions of the country, these regional services also fulfill “a fundamental function and that is now extinguished”, which is to convey to the ministry “the feeling and the specific problems of each region.
ANCEVE also said it was aware that “a package of concentration of competencies is being prepared, currently under study by the ministry, which will mean that the CCDR will receive services without any relevant competency.” “The central administration thus unloads the burden of justifying the inevitable closure of branches in the CCDRs,” they stressed.
The Government approved this Thursday in the Council of Ministers the resolution that initiates the transfer and distribution of powers from the autonomous State services to the CCDRs, in nine areas, estimating that the reform will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
According to a note released at the time, the powers to be transferred correspond to the areas of economy, culture, education, professional training, health, nature and forest conservation, infrastructure, land use planning, and agriculture.
Source: Observadora
