The Prime Minister said today that regionalisation will not be addressed during the current parliamentary term, arguing that “the timing is inadequate and inopportune” and that priority must be given to “deepening the decentralisation process already under way”.
“This government believes that, in this legislature, it is necessary to further develop the decentralisation currently in place. It must be assessed and taken even further in its inter-municipal dimension. But this will not be the legislature in which regionalisation is dealt with,” Luís Montenegro said at the closing session of the 27th Congress of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), which concludes today in Viana do Castelo.
According to the Prime Minister, the conditions are not right for such a step. “It is an inappropriate time for that advance,” he said. “The ongoing decentralisation process must be strengthened, in keeping with the spirit of municipalism and the executive capacity of municipalities.”
Montenegro said he wanted to make the government’s position “absolutely clear”, so that no misunderstandings remain in relations with local authorities. “We should not be misleading one another,” he added.
“A partnership must be based on loyalty and frankness. We cannot be partners if we lack the courage to tell each other what we think,” he argued.
In contrast, the ANMP maintains, in a resolution approved at the congress, that regionalisation is essential to overcoming what it describes as an “unequal and unbalanced” country, by reconciling national interests with those of the country’s various individual municipalities.
The association argues that a national policy for regional development “must be coordinated with all territorial stakeholders, so that decision-making processes align the interests of the country with the diverse interests of its different territories and regions”.
“Only administrative regions will be able to fulfil this role, ensuring the effective and efficient coordination of cross-cutting public policies,” the municipalities state.
Source: LUSA
