The Minister of National Defense admitted this Tuesday that there was an error in the drafting of the bill that creates the Immigration and Borders Unit (UNEF) of the PSP because in the text the powers of the GNR were expanded to ocean patrol.
“No, the Defense was not contacted, it did not participate in this writing and I think it was an oversight”responded Nuno Melo to the BE deputy, Fabián Figueiredo, during a hearing in the parliamentary committee on National Defense.
The leader of the BE bench stated that “the fact that the bill in question has aroused curiosity and astonishment inside and outside the Assembly of the Republic” “extend the powers of the GNR to ocean patrol throughout the entire Portuguese maritime space” and asked Nuno Melo if the National Defense had participated in the drafting of the proposal or if there had been an oversight.
The diploma includes, in addition to defining the new structure of the PSP, legislative changes to the powers of the GNRforeseeing that this force will carry out its mission “along the entire coast of the continent and the autonomous regions and maritime spaces under national sovereignty or jurisdiction.”
In the general debate on the 11th, several groups, including the PS and the PCP, had raised doubts about the operating model of the new unit and its coordination with the remaining forces of the internal security system. According to Público, the PCP deputy, António Filipe, asked the Minister of the Presidency, Leitão Amaro, with what means the GNR would exercise the powers assigned to it in the national maritime space.
Last week, the PSD, a party that supports the Government, delivered a text to replace this bill, eliminating the paragraph that expanded the powers of the GNR to patrol maritime spaces “under national sovereignty or jurisdiction.”
The bill, the replacement text proposed by the PSD and a proposal by Chega, should be debated and voted on Wednesday morning in the Constitutional Affairs committee.
Portuguese legislation distinguishes the concept of “territorial sea”, which extends up to 12 nautical miles from the coast, from that of “national maritime space”. The “national maritime space” includes the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf beyond 200 miles.
The organic law of the GNR of 2007 grants this force the competence to “guarantee, within the scope of its own mission, surveillance, patrolling and interception on land and sea, along the entire coast and territorial sea.” ”, but not in the entire national maritime space. .
Currently, patrolling from that limit is carried out by the Navy and its component structures, specifically the National Maritime Authority.
In this matter, the substitute text delivered by the PSD also stipulates that the GNR, through its Coastal Control Unit, coordinates, “without prejudice to the powers of the PSP, with the Navy’s Maritime Operations Center,” the exchange of information related to entry, stay and exit from the national territory.
However, the UNEF is granted the same attribution as the PSP: “Coordinate, without prejudice to the powers of the GNR, with the COMAR Maritime Operations Center, in particular with regard to search and rescue operations , the exchange of information related to the entry, stay and exit of national territory, carrying out risk analysis within the scope of its powers,” the text reads.
The proposed law that creates the UNEF aims to transpose into the national legal system the new European provisions relating to the automated computer system for registering entries and exits of citizens outside the Schengen area.
Source: Observadora
