The Socialist deputy and former Minister of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, today welcomed the return by the President of the Republic of the new law of the Sea to the parliament to clarify some specific points.
“It is a good approach from mr. President, who creates space to find a solution that meets our concerns, namely national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the protection of the sea and the use of the sea economy ”, said the parliamentarian to the agency Lusa.
For Ana Paula Vitorino, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “in a way that is his, exactly draws attention to the points” that a group of PS deputies called, through a vote statement.
“I am pleased with the President’s attitude. Our objective has always been to defend the country, national interests and territorial cohesion ”, he said, stating that the law creates“ three seas: Azores, Madeira and Continente ”, making“ a single strategy impossible ”, since it is“ each with yours, which may or may not coincide ”.
The President of the Republic today returned to parliament “without promulgation the decree on the first amendment to Law no. 17/2014, of 10 April, which establishes the Basis for the Policy for the Planning and Management of the National Maritime Space”.
The head of state considered that there were no “sufficient reasons” to send the diploma for preventive inspection to the Constitutional Court because “the primacy of the integrity and sovereignty of the State” is reserved, with just two amendments to the legislation in question.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa understood “should deserve complementary reflection and added precision” the points “regarding secondary powers, peacefully understood as delegable”.
On July 23, at the penultimate plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic, the new Law of the Sea was approved with votes in favor of PS, PAN and Liberal Initiative and abstentions from PSD, BE, PCP, CDS, “Os Verdes” and Enough.
Another 11 socialist deputies, along with Ana Paula Vitorino, signed a declaration of vote, appealing to the presidential veto of the proposal that came from the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Azores.
According to those tribunes of the PS, the diploma “suffers from vices of a political and legal nature” by creating “a fracture in national sovereignty, establishing” a specific concept of autonomous territory that transforms the Portuguese sea, in matters of planning and management, into a sum of three maritime spaces, the Azores, Madeira and the continent “.
Ascenso Simões, Jorge Lacão, Marcos Perestrello, Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos, Pedro Cegonho, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, José Magalhães, Rosário Gamboa, Alexandre Quintanilha, Jorge Gomes and Bruno Aragão were the other PS parliamentarians who signed the text.
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