The President of the Republic on Sunday rejected the existence of incompatibility between the European and Portuguese visa regimes, after the European Commission initiated proceedings against Portugal over its mobility treaty with Portuguese-speaking countries.
“Portugal has been explaining for years why there is no incompatibility between the regimes [de vistos] which is adopted with regard to the CPLP and the European Community regime. We have already explained why there is no opposition, no shock. So far this has been accepted and we believe we will defend our position,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The Portuguese head of state spoke to journalists at the town hall in Saint-Étienne, France, on the sidelines of a meeting with the Portuguese community.
The European Commission has opened an “infringement procedure” against Portugal over the new residence permits for citizens of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), which started in March, as DN reported firsthand.
According to an SEF source told DN, 151,575 CPLP visas have been granted so far and 14,500 job search visas according to the MNE
The Commission considered that Portugal does not comply with European obligations “establishing a uniform model of residence permit for third-country nationals” and that the country does not comply with the Schengen Agreement on free movement.
“The CPLP Mobility Agreement provides for a residence permit that does not comply with the uniform format laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002. In addition, both residence permits and long-stay visas are issued for the purpose of seeking employment by nationals of CPLP states do not allow their holders to travel within the Schengen area,” according to Commission information accessed by the Lusa agency.
Portugal has already been notified of the infringement procedure and now has two months to respond to the letter and correct the gaps identified by the Commission.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered in this context “an irony of fate” that “this has not been a problem for so many years and suddenly it is discovered that there is an illegality that did not exist in the past”.
“Let’s wait and see,” he said.
Since March, Portugal has been operating a new Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) portal that allows immigrants from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) with ongoing processes to automatically obtain a residence permit until December 31, 2022.
According to official data, there are approximately 150,000 immigrants from Portuguese-speaking countries in Portugal with ongoing processes at the SEF.
The residence permit in Portugal for CPLP citizens is granted under the Mobility Agreement between the organization’s member states.
In addition to Portugal, CPLP includes Cape Verde, Brazil, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola and Mozambique.
Source: DN
