Portugal’s AD government wants to ‘update’ financial resources framework
Portugal’s government is to table a new Local Finance Law in order to “update” the financial resources framework for municipalities to exercise in a “transparent, predictable and fair” way the new powers they have gained under a decentralisation drive.
Said the prime minister in Póvoa de Varzim yesterday:”We are focused on being able to present, in dialogue with the municipalities, a new Local Finance Law that can update this new framework and give the municipalities the financial resources they need in a transparent, predictable and fair way to exercise the competences they have been given”.
Montenegro, who leads a coalition government dominated by his own centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), had already stated last month that the executive would “revisit” the law in this respect in order to “give it greater predictability and confidence.”
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the elevation to city status of Póvoa de Varzim, the head of government reaffirmed his commitment to decentralisation, arguing that the process “is only worthwhile if the competences are real, if they are not just apparent and if there are financial means to execute these competences.”
Changing this legislation has been a demand of local authorities. In May, the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities proposed, “in the true sense of the word, a new Local Finance Law: a law that modernises Portugal and is in itself a reform of the State, making it more efficient and closer to the people.”
In response to the opposition’s criticism of the work of the PSD and its People’s Party (CDS-PP) coalition partner, Montenegro said that although not everyone believes in his project and many have different ideas: the government “was chosen by the people” in the March 10 election and its programme was approved in parliament.
“If the main criticism you want to keep levelling at the government is that it is carrying out its programme, then you’ll get tired of criticising, because we are going to carry out that programme to the end,” he added.
Source: LUSA
