The Socialist Party (PS) has corrected the government’s bill that transfers the offices of Europol and Interpol from the Judicial Police (PJ) to the Internal Security System (SSI), where international police cooperation is concentrated.
After being generally approved, with only the votes for the PS – all other parties voted against – this Wednesday the Socialist bank presented amendment proposals to be voted on in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
According to the new wording for the restructuring of the Single Point of Contact for International Police Cooperation (PUC-CPI), to which the DN had access, it is located in Criminal organization and investigative law that it is up to the Secretary General of the SSI to designate the leadership of these offices, “which is exercised by a staff of the Judicial Police”.
At the same time, in Internal Security Actensures that “the Head of the Bureau of Europol and Interpol is inherently the responsibility of the Coordinator of the Bureau of the Judicial Police”.
However, the vote was postponed at the request of the PSD. THE Deputy Paula Cardoso points out “two reasons” for such a decision: “the proposals to be discussed in committee must be sent to us at least 24 hours in advance, which has not happened. The proposal in question reached us yesterday (Tuesday) at 6.30 pm In addition, written opinions have been requested by the PS itself from several entities that have not yet reached the committee and that are essential for the analysis of the proposal”.
Paula Cardoso admits that the proposed changes to the PS “they improved the law a bit”, but that will have to be “discussed when” they have “the opinions”. “We are analyzing the constitutional issues that I believe are still under threat. We are waiting for the opinions to supplement the analysis,” he underlined.
The PUC-CPI is a structure required by the European Union of all Member States to facilitate international police cooperation between the various external and internal authorities. Only Portugal has installed it in the SSI – because it is the only entity where all police from different ministries sit.
But when it came to the transfer of the Europol and Interpol offices, mainly in the first case because in most cases it involves information in the criminal investigation of the PJ (economic-financial crimes, human trafficking, etc.), the fact that this structure relies on direct statements from the Prime Minister, including from prosecutors and inspectors of the PJ, who spoke through their respective unions.
In an interview with DN, the Secretary General of the SSI, Paulo Vizeu Pinheirohad already guaranteed that the PJ would always take over the management of these offices and that this would be laid down in a decree-law, but the President of the Republic came to warn that this was not enough.
Marcelo wanted assurances that the new diploma would establish that it was the PJ who would be in control and warned that he could send the document to the Constitutional Court.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted to sending this government proposal to the Constitutional Court “if he has any doubts” about its constitutionality.
The President wants to ensure that, once the diploma is in effect, unconstitutional laws related to the separation of powers are not addressed and therefore wants to make it clear in this amendment to the LOIC and LSI that only the PJ has access to criminal investigation cases. . “It must be guaranteed by law,” he emphasized to DN Fonte de Belém at the time.
However, before the PS correction was known, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, in a letter sent to the Portuguese government on September 27 and made public this Wednesday, expressed “concern” at the situation, and hypothesized “the risk of political interference or inappropriate access to information about pending criminal investigations”.
The PUC-CPI is “the operational center responsible for coordinating international police cooperation, ensuring the forwarding of national requests for information, the receipt and national dissemination of information from foreign authorities, the transmission of information and the fulfillment of requests by have been formulated”.
It integrates the National SIRENE Bureau, the National EUROPOL Unit, the INTERPOL National Bureau, the Passenger Information Office, the coordination of national and foreign liaison officers, the coordination of the police and customs cooperation centers and the resulting contact points of the Prüm- decide.
Source: DN
