The president of the Algarve’s Coordination and Regional Development Commission (CCDR), the socialist José Apolinário, opposes the changes announced by the Ministry of Culture in the management of museums and monuments and defends that these reorganization removes local entities from the management of their assets, which goes against the principle of subsidiarity that should characterize relations between the central state and local authorities. In other words, that powers should be exercised, where possible, by entities with greater local proximity.
It concerns the reorganization of the powers currently assigned to the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC), approved last week by the Council of Ministers. According to the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, two new entities will be created: “A company that will be called Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, headquartered in Lisbon and that will try to generate a business management profile to generate more value around our museums and national monuments, so that we can invest in qualification, in national collections, and also in a public institute for the preservation of heritage, headquartered in Porto”.
For José Apolinário, talking to Lusa, this reorganization is “incoherent” insofar as it centralizes the management of monuments and classified sites. In the case of the Algarve, the Roman ruins of Milreu (in Estoi, Faro) are transferred from the management of the Algarve Regional Directorate of Culture to the Heritage Cultural public institution, while the Sagres fortress is transferred from the responsibility of the same regional management to the company Museums and Monuments of Portugal. In fact, for José Apolinário, the announced reorganization seems to have “one single purpose, which is to manage the income of Sagres from Lisbon”. “Fortress of Sagres has about 450,000 visitors, it has income and it is intended to manage the income of Sagres from Lisbon. I do not agree and I can only take a stand against this organization of classified heritage because it ignores the principle of subsidiarity,” he stressed.
Former mayor of Faro, José Apolinário, was also a deputy and member of the European Parliament and, from 2015, Secretary of State for Fisheries, a role he would retain from 2019 in António Costa’s second government. office at the Presidency of the CCDR of the Algarve. In a communiqué issued yesterday, the socialist emphasizes that “State reform, capacity building and a crucial regional dimension have long been a constant theme in political and government programmes”noting that the current program of the executive “proposes a state reform based on the principle of proximity and subsidiarity”, and that the transformation of the CCDR into a public institution was an “important step”. But the reorganization that has now been announced does not follow this movement, he says. “When the country celebrates 50 years after the April revolution of 1974, the announced reform of the organization of the management of museums and monuments integrated in the classified heritage of the state ignores the principle of subsidiarity,” says the leader of CCDR Algarve , pointing to an example of the role of regional authorities in strengthening its heritage: “The Promontório de Sagres is a European heritage brand thanks to the perseverance and will of regional entities, from the beginning of CCDR Algarve itself, the Regional Directorate of Culture – promoter of the candidature – and the municipalities, especially of Vila do Bispo”. Prove that the “enhancing the role of culture in sustainable tourism, social inclusion and innovation requires articulation at a sub-national level, ensuring a proximity response in heritage protection”.
Source: DN
