Marcelo encourages professional orders to fight for the review of the law that the PS imposed on them | President

After being contradicted by the absolute majority in the Assembly of the Republic because the socialists confirmed, in January, the diplomas that they had vetoed on the statutes of professional orders, the President of the Republic encouraged these entities to take stock of the changes they have to apply this year and to come together to support a new review of the law on the issues that they consider essential to change. Among them are the imposition of a provider for service users, who must be a person external to the profession, and the obligation to pay for internships without public support being guaranteed.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa opened this Thursday afternoon the first Forum of Professional Orders held at the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, bringing together the 20 orders. After listening to the president of the National Council of Professional Orders, the former socialist minister of Public Works António Mendonça, point out two of the main reasons for complaining about the new legislation – the imposition of an external provider for each order and the remuneration for professional internships -, the President of the Republic praised the calm but determined position of the orders in the legislative process that took several years and advised them to maintain a “prudent strategy” and reinforce “unity, selecting initiatives and focusing on a legislative review on the essential core of issues”. And he added, pointing out that it would be a kind of “rebirth” of the orders: “With dialogue, brevity, but with certainty of success.”

In this vote to confirm the diplomas vetoed by Marcelo, the PS approved everything alone, with PSD, Chega, PCP and PAN voting against, while IL, BE and Livre abstained. Even before the final votes, both the PSD and PS admitted that it would be necessary to return to the legislative process soon to correct some issues. At the time, the review of the legal framework for regulated professions had to be done hastily so that Portugal could have access to a new tranche of the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Program.

Before an audience of representatives from the twenty orders, but also with the Ombudsman, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted that we are in a “new time cycle”, in an allusion that can be understood as an opportunity for these entities to come to an understanding with the new executive . Taking into account that there is now a right-wing majority, more in line with some of the demands of the professional orders, the President of the Republic leaves the council to review the law.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa cited António Mendonça to point out the ways to discuss each of the issues in which the orders encounter problems. When it comes to the provider of service users, you should discussup how to “combine the new figure with the role of the ombudsman, how to assess the internal and external effectiveness of the two decisions, how to limit the matters that must be assessed by the various ombudsman bodies”.

Regarding the obligation to pay for internships, the head of state spoke of the need to create public support for this, even considering them “inevitable”, even to prevent the flight of qualified young people from the country.

Previously, I had heard António Mendonça talk about potential “conflicts” generated by the role of the provider. Firstly, within each order because they are someone external to the profession and because they now have a set of skills with “high potential to generate conflict with other management bodies”. And, secondly, with the functions of the Ombudsman.