The urgent parliamentary debate on the Iberian energy interconnection agreement requested by the PSD will not take place until November 25 after the state budget discussion is completed.
The decision was announced by Socialist deputy Palmira Maciel at the end of the Leaders’ Conference.
The PSD announced on Sunday the request for the emergency debate it wanted to see on Thursday – after the discussion and vote on the national budget for 2023 in general – and also said it expected the presence of the Prime Minister, Antonio Costa.
“There was no consensus from the Leaders’ Conference to change the nominations already made and the debate is for after November 25,” Palmira Maciel, who replaced the usual spokeswoman of the leaders conference this Tuesday, justified the socialist Maria da Luz Rosinha.
The PSD has strongly criticized the principle of the agreement reached between Portugal, Spain and France – announced last Thursday – to promote a “green energy corridor”, by sea, between Barcelona and Marseille (BarMar), at the expense of a crossing through the Pyrenees (MidCat), with the Social Democrats seeing it as “bad” and “harmful to the national interest”.
For his part, Prime Minister António Costa expressed his bewilderment at the PSD’s criticism of the principle of agreement on European energy interconnections and accused Social Democratic leader Paulo Rangel – who spoke on the subject on behalf of the party over the weekend – of something of to notice the matter.
The timetable, sources of funding and costs related to the implementation of the Green Corridor will be discussed in December in Alicante, Spain.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic, an emergency debate can be held every two weeks at the request of a parliamentary group.
Also according to the Rules of Procedure, the debate is required from the President of the Assembly of the Republic indicating the theme or “from the Friday of the previous week and until 11 a.m. of the same day with regard to the debates intended to be scheduled for the plenary session on Wednesday and Thursday” or “from Monday of the same week and until 6 pm the day before in connection with the debates scheduled for the plenary session on Friday”.
“The government is obliged to be represented in the debate through one of its members”also refers to the Rules of Procedure.
For this week, plenary sessions are scheduled only on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss and vote on the OE2023 and only at the end of November will the plenary meet again for the budget process in the specific area.
Source: DN
