Regulation No. 181/2017 of May 31, Article 1: “The online certificate gives access for a period of six months to the information registered on the date of issue”; Article 2: “The request for registration of access to the certificate online it is executed through the website of the jurisdiction”; Article 5: “Any enrollment request for access to the online certificate is subject to the fee of 10 euros”.
First justification? O simple and the program of the XXI constitutional government [Francisca Van Dunem, ministra da Justiça; Anabela Pedroso, secretária de Estado da Justiça; António Costa, primeiro-ministro] which “established as a strategy the improvement of the relationship between citizens and public administration and the modernization of public services”.
Second justification? “Provide electronic birth, marriage, death, maternity and adoption certificates of birth, marriage, and adoption, broaden the nature of civil registry services currently available online, and dematerialize and simplify citizens’ access to information.”
The exercise? “The online civil status record contains the entries and notes in the birth, marriage, death, maternity and adoption records, and the records are made available for a period of six months.”
The consequence? For example, two “clear and pointless” cases that the Liberal Initiative (IL) wants to change and the statement is “single“: “What’s the use of the expiration date on a death certificate? Does it imply the possibility of resurrection? (…) That the birth certificate is changed because the person was not born after all?”.
Carlos Guimarães Pinto, deputy of the IL, emphasizes the “absence of meaning” of certificates, death and birth certificates, of “things that do not change”.
“Reducing the validity period of these certificates to a period of six months is difficult to justify. Firstly because it is a procedural bureaucracy that comes down to people and secondly because this bureaucracy imposes unjustified costs on them. Is it reasonable to require someone to apply for more than one death, adoption, maternity or birth certificate and to pay €10 for each certificate, given the limited period of validity?’ asks the party in the justification underlying the bill.
The deputy reinforces the idea that “we are talking about digital certificates that do not have any kind of costs involved. The person asks for the issuance and the certificate that is already there becomes valid again. But such a certificate changes not. Does the fact that we accept that a death certificate can expire mean that we can expect, that the State expects, that the person will resuscitate after some time?”
“The Liberal Initiative understands that this is not the case and that as registrations and all civil status changes incur costs, citizens should not be burdened with renewing certificates. If it is true that making these certificates available electronically was an important step in simplifying these procedures,” the party now defends, it is important “to take a step forward and free people from the costs and bureaucracy which, even if on a smaller scale, are felt and have no justification”.
How much does the State match these certificates? “There are no isolated values that allow the assessment of the annual amounts involved,” assures Carlos Guimarães Pinto.
Source: DN
