The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) defended today “structural changes of the building” of Civil Protection in order to “ensure the articulation” between the agents and called for greater participation of municipalities in the definition of the national strategy.

The ANMP, meeting in national congress, presented a report on the development model for the country, which argues that “revision” of the current Civil Protection Bases Law (“LBPC”) is required as a “hat law” of the entire structure of civil protection.

He also defended the revision of the Integrated Protection and Relief Operations System (SIOPS) which defines the set of structures, norms and procedures that they ensure as all current civil protection agents in the operational plan

In the document, the ANMP states that, although it agrees with the principle that the structure of civil protection of supra-municipal scope must correspond to the territory of the inter-municipal entities of the mainland, it considers that the new organization of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), unaccompanied by “structural building” alterations of the civil protection building based on the LBPC and SIOPS, “proves inconsequential, not solving the already identified problems of action, articulation and coordination among the various civil protection agents throughout the country”.

“It is important to ensure that the municipalities follow the definition of the policies and national strategy of Civil Protection and participate in the operational decisions of the management of the system and the definition of means and resources,” said the document’s rapporteur, Alfredo Monteiro, President of the Assembly of Municipal do Seixal and vice-president of the ANMP Board of Directors.

The mayor noted that the “municipalities today assume broad responsibilities in matters of Civil Protection”, in “many cases replacing the central power”.

“According to recent data, an amount of around € 200 million is invested annually in this area, which is distributed to municipal fire brigades, support to voluntary fire brigades, municipal civil protection services, permanent intervention teams, technical offices and forest sappers ”, also listed Alfredo Monteiro.

This is a “reality”, he stressed, “in which the investment of central power is still far from what this social function of the state requires.”

The ANMP understands that municipalities should “participate in the definition of policies and in the national strategy of Civil Protection”, as well as in “political decisions” for the management of the Protection System. Civil.

In addition to the chambers, it also advocates the involvement of all Civil Protection agents, from GNR, fire brigade structures, the Armed Forces or the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).