The Council of State, political consultative body of the President of the Republic, meets this Tuesday afternoon with the participation as guest of John Kerry, special presidential envoy of the United States of America for the climate.
This meeting, which coincides with the UN Oceans Conference in Lisbon, is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., at the Cascais Citadel Palace.district of Lisbon, and its theme is “the perspectives, challenges and opportunities of the fight against climate change and the energy transition”.
The 2nd United Nations (UN) Conference on the Oceans, jointly organized by Portugal and Kenya, takes place between Monday and Friday in Lisbon.
The invitation of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to John Kerry to participate in the meeting of the Council of State was made on February 11 at a meeting that both held in Brest, France, on the sidelines of the international summit “One Ocean”, promoted by the French presidency of the European Union.
Since he became head of state in March 2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has innovated by inviting national and foreign personalities to the meetings of his political consultation body and making them more frequent.
This will be the 25th meeting of the Council of State that he chairs and the first since the XXIII Constitutional Government took office, chaired by António Costa, on March 30 of this year.
The previous meeting took place on March 14, on the situation in Ukraine, and ended with a condemnation of the aggression of the Russian Federation that began on February 24.
Presided over by the President of the Republic, the Council of State has as inherent members the holders of the positions of President of the Assembly of the Republic, Prime Minister, President of the Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, Presidents of regional governments and former Presidents. of the Republic.
Under the terms of the Constitution, it is also made up of five citizens appointed by the Head of State, for the period corresponding to the duration of their mandate, and five elected by the Assembly of the Republic, in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, for the period corresponding to the duration of the legislature.
At the beginning of his second term, on March 9, 2021, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa appointed the writer Lídia Jorge as Counselor of State and renamed the former leader of the CDS-PP António Lobo Xavier, the former president of the PSD Luís Marques Mendes, the president of Champalimaud Foundation, Leonor Beleza, and neuroscientist António Damásio.
After the legislative elections of January 30 of this year, the Assembly of the Republic elected Carlos César, Manuel Alegre and António Sampaio da Nóvoa, proposed by the PS, for the Council of State, Francisco Pinto Balsemão and Miguel Cadilhe, proposed by the PSD.
The councilors elected by the Assembly of the Republic for this legislature must take office immediately before the meeting on Tuesday.
Source: Observadora
