The government declined on Thursday to condition delegates on how the issue of the health emergency should appear in the future constitutional review process, claiming it was just about “sharing information”.
This position was conveyed by the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, after being questioned about the fact that the Prime Minister, António Costa, sent new contributions to Parliament on Wednesday from the technical committee he appointed for the protection of public health. .
According to the minister of the presidency, even during the last parliamentary term, the government asked a working group to consider the legislative dimensions necessary to frame measures that the executive, the president of the republic and the parliament “have together taken during the Covid -19 pandemic”.
“With a constitutional review process open, the government understood that it made sense to share updated information on this reflection. It made sense that the Assembly of the Republic as a whole would be aware of this – as this is one of the topics being debated.” Mariana Vieira da Silva justified a possible constitutional reform.
At this point, the minister emphasized that the prime minister’s goal “was not to keep in time the information already made available to the various parties and the Assembly of the Republic at the previous point”.
That is why “more up-to-date information has now been shared about that same technical committee,” he emphasized.
Mariana Vieira da Silva even defended that “it was the duty of the government to share this information, as it had already shared the study that had already been carried out a few months ago”.
“The debate is being held in the Assembly of the Republic. Another topic is the sharing of the reflection that would be initiated by the government in a different context, in the context of a legislative amendment. constitutional revision. As far as decisions regarding the revision of the constitution are concerned, it is up to the Assembly of the Republic and the various parliamentary groups,” he added.
The note released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday states that António Costa, “after having begun a process of constitutional revision”, “understood to ask the technical committee to reconsider the need for a constitutional to introduce a rule that would ensure legal certainty of the set of provisions contained in the preliminary draft law on the protection of public health and propose, in the light of this new circumstance, what appears to be the most appropriate”.
That note points out that this “new recital, and in this new context, has resulted in a note containing the proposals which, in the opinion of the Technical Committee, remove any margin of uncertainty and enhance legal certainty”.
“Since the government does not have the right of initiative in the field of constitutional laws, however, it must provide to those who possess it – in this case the Assembly of the Republic – all appropriate technical information for their free consideration and appreciation so that if they want to be able to take that into account,” the management said later.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the new contributions from the technical committee were sent to the Assembly of the Republic on Wednesday.
The technical committee proposes to add, as part of the work of the final Constitutional Review Committee, a new paragraph: “Separation from a person with a serious infectious disease or who has a well-founded fear of the spread of serious disease or infection, determined by health, by reasoned decision, for the time strictly necessary, in the event of a public health emergency, according to the provisions of the law”.
In June 2021, the government established a technical committee to study and prepare preliminary drafts to review the current legal framework based on the experience during the covid-19 pandemic.
The technical committee was formed by the retired Judge Adviser António Henriques Gaspar, the Deputy Prosecutor General João Possante, who represented the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Ravi Afonso Pereira, who represented the Ombudsman, and Alexandre Abrantes, professor at the National School of Public Health.
On Saturday, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, declined to comment on the constitutional reform because it is a process in which he does not intervene, but he again warned of the need for metadata changes and health concerns.
This Thursday, the PS will meet with its National Political Commission to approve the principles of its constitutional reform project, which should cover more than just issues related to health issues and access to electronic communications by the armed forces, police and security.
The PS also wants to extend and consolidate fundamental rights in its project, especially in the social field.
Chega delivered a draft constitutional revision to parliament which was admitted on October 12, with a comment from the Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic: “To be sent to the final committee to be established for this purpose”.
According to the constitution of the republic, “all other projects must be submitted within a period of thirty days when a constitutional revision project is submitted”.
Source: DN
