The defense minister this Wednesday believed that “there are no magic solutions” to combat the manpower crisis in the armed forces and stressed that joining the ranks cannot be a “source of uncertainty” but “an opportunity”.
Helena Carreiras spoke at the presentation of the action plan for the professionalization of the military service, at the National Defense Institute (IDN), in Lisbon, a series of 25 measures and 82 actions aimed at recruiting into the armed forces and retaining military personnel .
The official stressed that there are no “magic solutions” to solve this problem, but rather “a diverse set of measures at different levels” that need to be worked on “at the same time”.
According to Helena Carreiras, the recent pandemic crisis “and the volatility of the current geopolitical context have demonstrated the importance of a force that is ready, modern and capable of carrying out a broad and growing number of missions”.
“This only reinforces what we have been defending: that joining the military, as a professional option, cannot be seen as a source of uncertainty and uncertainty for those who decide to do it. Rather, it should be an opportunity for personal growth. and professional that recognizes society as a whole and that makes it possible to train citizens qualified to serve Portugal in various functions,” he stressed.
One of the measures of the plan is the update and revision of the Military Service Act, through a legislative amendment planned for the first half of 2025.
Helena Carreiras, who was questioned on the sidelines about this measure, recalled that the law dates from 1999 and defended that “there are several aspects that need to be reviewed”.
One of them, he said, is related to “issues related to the regulation of incentives for military service,” the rules of which need updating.
“But there is also a need to think about the issue of reserves, which needs to be reconsidered in a different way than at the beginning when this law was made. The pandemic has shown us the need to rethink these categories of armed forces reserves. , availability reserves and recruitment reserves,” he said.
Helena Carreiras stated that there is no question of changing the current model of military service — which is based on a voluntary logic — and said that the aim is to “strengthen and consolidate this model”, through measures such as for example, the possible revision of deadlines related to contracts and special contract regimes.
The minister added that the government is currently “implementing the expansion of the special contract regime from five to 15 functional areas” and moving forward with “salary updates for the military and militarized, with 11% valuations for lower pay levels, allowing increases in pay levels in the conscript category with a positive impact on approximately eight thousand military personnel”.
The executive is still reviewing overall suitability and skills tables, “with expected positive impacts on hiring.”
The minister highlighted some of the measures included in the plan – which was created in 2019 and has now been revised – such as the alignment of vocational training for the armed forces with the national qualification system, the establishment of permanent cadres of land and air forces squares, or intervention plans in military infrastructure to improve the working conditions of the troops.
The minister stressed that while the plan falls within the government’s domain of Defense, it goes further and involves sectors such as Education, Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Finance, Public Administration or Higher Education, “which will be called upon to work together, coordinated way, for the implementation of this strategic tool”.
Source: DN
