The Vice President of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) said today that it is the decentralization of competences in the health field that accounts for “most of the problems and distortions” and that there are still issues to be resolved in the field of education.
“In the oldest area, which is education, there are still issues to be resolved, which are the financial deficit. Ribao Esteves pointed out that the area that has a calmer atmosphere is social work, and the area in which we hear about more problems, more distortions, and which is also the area in which municipalities are present for the shortest period, is the health area.
At the conclusion of the Board of Directors meeting held this morning in Coimbra, the Vice-President of the ANMP stressed that the current government is committed to resolving the problems related to the transfer of powers.
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“What the minister mentioned is one of the commitments he made with us, because we recorded the existing imbalances: some issues from a legislative standpoint, and others that we learn from the ongoing process. He said that the fiscal deficit issues in the three regions are the most intense.
Deputy Minister of Regional Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, said Monday that it is time to “consolidate” decentralization, considering it necessary to correct “possible distortions” in the process and update the data to calculate transfers to municipalities.
According to Ribao Esteves, the ANMP already has meetings scheduled with members of the government, who have expressed “full readiness” to find solutions to the “outstanding issues.”
“The first concerns a very important area, where there are many very complex issues pending, in the areas of water, waste and energy. Obviously we are talking about the Ministry of Environment and Energy and we have a meeting scheduled with the minister on June 11.”
This morning’s board meeting also reported on the “informative” meeting held with the new Housing Minister.
“I really needed information and we brought it and, in addition to what we did at the meeting, it was immediately a document containing many of the contributions that the association had made in the discussion and in building the more housing package with the previous government that they were not aware of.” , as he claimed.
The National Housing Management Agency’s position on local housing has reached the new Secretary of State for Housing, who believes it is up to municipalities to decide on the issue.
“We are saying that who should decide whether more is available or which areas of the municipality should accept it or not. We understand that this can only be a municipal decision that must be well made. He concluded that dealing with these matters in national legislation makes no sense.
The ANMP General Council meeting is scheduled to be held this afternoon.
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