The Prime Minister, António Costa, on Monday praised the results achieved by the country with the current architecture of the Internal Security System (SSI), namely the work of various criminal investigation bodies, such as the PSP and GNR.
This position was expressed by António Costa during the inauguration ceremony of new facilities and facilities in Lisbon of the SSI, an institution whose general secretary is Ambassador Paulo Vizeu Pinheiro.
The ceremony was attended by the Ministers of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, of Defense, Helena Carreiras, and of Justice, Catarina Sarmento e Castro.
After listening to Cardinal Américo Aguiar and the Patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério, the leader of the executive branch referred to international assessments in which Portugal is listed as the seventh safest country in the world and the fourth in the European Union, emphasizing that “these results did not happen by chance” and on the other hand that “no one invests” in unsafe areas.
In his speech, he emphasized the internal security model of shared powers that has existed in Portugal for more than two decades.
‘When at the beginning of the century the law on the criminal investigation organization consolidated what only happened occasionally, namely valuing the GNR and the PSP as bodies for criminal investigations, it was a step that many feared. Twenty years later, no one has any doubt about the competence and quality of the criminal investigations conducted by these two security forces,” he insisted.
Therefore, according to António Costa, it made perfect sense to move towards a new level of cooperation involving the security forces and the judicial police.
In this context, The Prime Minister also pointed out that European Schengen assessments show that the lack of a single point of contact for international police cooperation is one of the main national failures.
‘That was one of the most important missions that led me to pick up the Portuguese ambassador in Moscow [Paulo Viseu Pinheiro]. Fortunately, with this single point of contact that we now have, our ability to develop international police cooperation has improved significantly,” he stressed, before referring to the “success” of World Youth Day in August in terms of security.
“But it is not only when His Holiness the Pope visits us that international cooperation is important. We live in a Schengen area, without internal borders up to Poland. Without very intensive cooperation, there is no capacity to respond to safety requirements.” insisted.
With José Luís Carneiro in the front row of the audience, António Costa also praised the recent reform of the border system, “with the possibility of separating administrative and police powers”, and made a passing reference to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“We should not ask the police for matters that are not the responsibility of the police. The police are not responsible for welcoming and integrating, but rather for guaranteeing the security of the state, people and property, and for maintaining order. [pública] and continue the necessary criminal investigation under the guidance of the Public Prosecution Service,” he emphasized.
For Antonio Costa, other administrative entities should be responsible “for welcoming with dignity” those who are refugees or those who immigrate and legally seek to “develop new activities for their lives” in Portugal.
“For this reason, a very important political choice was made to strengthen the police and humanitarian components of reception and integration. At the same time, we have strengthened our border control system as we now have two security forces totaling 40 people. thousand of employees – a capacity that has never been reached before. But here too, cooperation between entities is essential,” he warned.
In his speech said the Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of the Anti-Terrorist Cooperation Unit.
“The coordination between the intelligence services, the different criminal investigative bodies and the different security forces is essential for Portugal to respond to the diverse risks that exist,” he added.
Source: DN
