The National Council of Professional Orders (CNOP) requested an emergency meeting with the Prime Minister to establish a reasonable timetable for the Orders to intervene in the law amending their regulations, “if the government is really interested in doing so is”.
In a note that DN had access to and was signed by CNOP President António Mendonça, the Professional Orders complain about the “apparently tight” deadlines, from April 12 to 27, for “providing contributions on the revision of statutes, specific acts of the liberal professions and working conditions of multidisciplinary societies, in the context of the preparation of bills to be submitted to the Assembly of the Republic at the end of August”.
The decree was approved in a final vote on December 22, with favorable votes from PS, Iniciativa Liberal and PAN, votes against from PSD, Chega and PCP and abstentions from BE and Livre.
Discussion of the legislative amendments of the new regulatory diploma in parliament sparked controversy until the last minute, with the PSD emphasizing that one of the government’s objectives, with the support of the PS, was to put an end to professional orders and the inconvenience the presidents can cause.
After the final wording was adopted, the decree-law amending the legal regime of professional public associations went to the Palace of Belém on Friday, January 27, according to the website of the Assembly of the Republic.
Considering that the decree-law raised doubts “about the respect of principles such as equality and proportionality, the guarantee of the exercise of certain rights, self-regulation and democratic character of professional associations, all provided for in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic”, the President of República sent it to the Constitutional Court (TC) on February 1 for preventive inspection.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa later stated that he had asked for a preventive inspection of the decree, since “the government and the parliamentary majority understood that it was constitutional, the 19 professional orders understood that it was clearly unconstitutional, weighing 500,600 thousand representatives. , 700 thousand Portuguese”.
Among the professional associations, the Bar Association was one of the most vehement condemners of the decree, with frequent public criticism, namely against the provisions allowing the presence of elements outside the professions, for example in internal disciplinary tribunals or in ombudsman functions.
At the time, the National Council of Professional Orders (CNOP) presented its complaints to the Ombudsman, after pointing out the “great convergence” of views at the end of the meeting.
According to António Mendonça, “the reduction of the autonomy of the Orders undermines the defense of the public interest”, since these are “professional public associations whose main attribution is the defense of the public interest, guaranteeing the quality of the service provided in order to put an end to the users”.
However, on February 27, the TC declared the law constitutional because it believed it “did not respect any constitutional principles or norms” and was passed on the 20th.
Source: DN
