The Prime Minister this Thursday considered the gradual removal of bureaucratic obstacles and administrative simplification as part of a state reform he championed that would be gradual and not through a “moment of magic”.
This position was put forward at the end of a session at the Lisbon Botanical Garden, after the Council of Ministers generally approved a decree “moving on environmental reform and simplification”.
This government diploma, which will be discussed in public until September 15, provides for the approval of 43 measures and is the first of four packages to accelerate project permitting under a program called “Environment + Simple”.
“Contrary to what some people often say, state reform is not some kind of magical moment when the state we have disappears and we wake up again with a new state. The state reform is taking place day by day, introducing steps to improve efficiency improve public services”, steadily.
In this regard, he said that the Simplex program is already 16 years old, “because not everything was simplified right away and because every year it is possible to identify new areas and new steps to simplify citizens’ lives and improve the daily lives of businesses”.
“In recent weeks, we have succeeded in taking fundamental steps in the reform of the state: on Friday, the decentralization agreement in the field of health and education will be signed with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities; today the President of the Republic announced the re-evaluation of the careers of the technical superiors of the public administration; and the Council of Ministers today adopted a decree-law on the implementation of the budget that strengthens the autonomy of the various institutions of public administration,” he emphasized.
As for the environmental licensing simplification program, whose diploma was also approved, António Costa classified it as “fundamental to reduce bureaucracy”.
“Bureaucracy is a burden on the economy, a burden on the citizen and a risk for corruption. Creating difficulties to sell facilities is the basic principle for the onset of corruption. Therefore, betting on simplification is also preventing the risk of corruption “, emphasizes.
In his speech, which followed that of the Secretary of State for Digitization and Administrative Modernization, Mário Campolargo, the former member of the government João Tiago Silveira, and the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, the leader of the executive as design a “sustainable” growth of Portugal above the European Union average.
“This obviously implies entrepreneurship, investment capacity, improving qualifications and lifelong training, improving the competitiveness of companies, but also improving the competitiveness of our economy,” he insisted.
According to António Costa, the process of administrative simplification must “have continuity”.
“It started in the previous government, but unfortunately the political crisis delayed the completion of this process for many months,” he added, praising his Secretary of State for Digitization and Administrative Modernisation.
“We’ll be here in a few months. Thank you Mário, it was a great job,” he added.
Source: El heraldo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
