Rui Rio believes that it is necessary to “ennoble” the parliamentary debate and decided to proceed with a series of amendments to the rules of operation of the Assembly of the Republic. At the top, the Social Democratic leader understands that the usual fortnightly debates with the presence of the Prime Minister should be replaced by “debates in the months of September, January, March and May, on a date fixed by the President of the Assembly, as proposed by the first -I administer 15 days in advance and the leaders’ conference is heard “.
In addition to these debates, António Costa should also appear before the two ordinary European councils, in the debate on the State of the Nation and in November during the State Budget, which makes eight mandatory presences per year.
As a rule, the Social Democrats, parliamentary groups and deputies who are sole representatives of a party propose that they should then “communicate to the Assembly of the Republic and the Government the specific sectoral areas, a maximum of two, on which the questions should focus” until two days before the debate.
Ministers are now called to sector debates four times for a questioning session of Members in October, February, April and June.
Commissions of inquiry with independents
This is not the only change proposed by the PSD. Social democrats understand that “it is urgent to give credibility and dignity to parliamentary commissions of inquiry” and that is why they believe that the “participation of civil society people in these commissions” should become “mandatory”.
“Due to constitutional obstacles, it is not possible to include members of civil society in the composition of the commissions of inquiry (they can only have members in their composition), but there is nothing to prevent people from civil society from participating and collaborating with parliamentary inquiry committees”, safeguard the PSD in the proposal they sent to Parliament.
In addition, Rui Rio also defends the extinction of the current Parliamentary Transparency Committee and the creation of the “Council of Transparency and Deputies’ Statute”, an entity that will work with the Assembly of the Republic, being composed of: (i) a president, who must be a person of recognized merit with a relevant history of public, political and / or institutional service, who cannot have held the position of deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in the legislature immediately before the election, proposed by the President of the Assembly of the Republic; (ii) a majority of non-deputy members, citizens of recognized suitability and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights, who cannot have held the position of Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in the legislature immediately prior to the election; (iii) deputies in a number corresponding to the representativeness of the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic “.
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