The current hot political topic is Portugal's less than adequate response to the international refugee crisis.
Offering 1,500 places over two years has set the country up for ridicule and the crisis was the main topic of conversation in today's council of ministers meeting.
The Deputy Minister of Development, Poiares Maduro, announced after the meeting that Portugal (i.e. the government) has a willingness to accept a greater number of refugees but cautioned that the Portuguese response is "dependent on decisions adopted in Europe."
The deputy minister said that Portugal has the capacity to take in a greater number of refugees than the 1,500 announced last week and then, using the favourite stand-by of politicians all over the world, announced the establishment of a working party.
"What I can say is that Portugal surely is able to accommodate a larger number of refugees, hoping that this same solidarity and capacity also exists in the other European states," said Miguel Poiares Maduro, adding that "today there will be an announcement of the establishment of a coordination group for the work that has to be done by those ministries which have responsibility for implementing the plan for refugees and immigrants."
The minister said that "this coordination group shall be composed of representatives of the General Directorate for European Affairs, the Foreign and Border Service who will coordinate this technical group, the Institute for Social Security, the Employment and Professional Training Institute, the Directorate General of Health, the General Directorate of Education and the High Commissioner for Migration."
"This technical group also will invite, where appropriate, local government and non-governmental organisation representatives, and those from civic society who have responsibility and already have taken initiatives. In addition to this technical coordination group there also is policy coordination needed between different ministries with responsibilities in this area. This will be at the level of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers," added Poiares Maduro.
Asked about the position of the Portuguese government in relation to how Hungary has responded to the arrival of refugees and migrants to its territory, (by building a fence to keep them out) Poiares Maduro drew on years of 'Yes Minister' episodes and said that "relations between member states require particular prudence and reserve in the comments made on the positions of other countries and there is a proper forum within the European Union for a member state to decide on positions that other states take."
"I can say that surely the Portuguese position is that we should not contribute to a climate which further hinders the reception of refugees and the reception of immigrants. We must have a European policy for this matter which does not promote the worsening of the humanitarian crisis."
Quite so. 'Set up a working group and throw the problem back to Brussels' seems to be the gist of Poiares Maduro's announcement.
While images below continue to be published on the web across the globe, Portugal will be asking Brussels what it should be doing.
