The association questions, in a statement, “the abusive, anti-democratic and absolutely unacceptable measure now announced by the Government”, in the sense of extinguishing the regional services of the Ministry of Agriculture in the continent and centralizing them in the Coordination and Regional Development Commissions (CCDR).
The association warns that, “without having resources in each region, as is now surprisingly announced, the Ministry of Agriculture will be limited to being a bureaucratic and ineffective giant in Terreiro do Paço (strictly speaking, since that is where its headquarters are located), without real knowledge what is happening in each region”.
“Being certain that Agriculture is an essential axis of the national economy and namely in the productive occupation of the territory and in the fight against the desertification of the interior, we are very concerned that the Ministry is being dismantled and emptied step by step, in the hands of a Politically irrelevant minister, who is not recognized by the sector or by her peers and whose maintenance in that position represents a huge casting error on the part of the Prime Minister”, he criticizes.
In this sense, the association calls for “the urgent replacement” of Minister Maria do Céu Antunes by “someone with knowledge of the sector, whom the sector respects and with political weight, who protects, not a weakened Ministry, without strategy and without direction, but a new Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development”.
He also highlights that the Regional Directorates of Agriculture fulfill “essential functions”, of serving and supporting thousands of producers, promoting specific knowledge for each regional reality, managing funds to support Agriculture, among many others.
For the association representing dozens of companies producing and exporting wines and spirits in the main demarcated regions of the country, these regional services also fulfill “a fundamental function and which is now extinguished”, which is to make the ministry reach “the feeling and the problems specific to each region.
ANCEVE also says it is aware that “a package of concentration of powers is being prepared, currently being studied by the ministry, which will mean that the CCDR will receive services without any relevant competence”.
“The central administration thus offloads the burden of justifying the inevitable closure of branches onto the CCDRs”, they underline.
The Government approved on Thursday in the Council of Ministers the resolution that initiates the transfer and sharing of competences from regional State services to the CCDRs, in nine areas, estimating that the reform will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
According to a note released at the time, the attributions to be transferred relate to the areas of economy, culture, education, professional training, health, nature and forest conservation, infrastructure, land use planning and agriculture.
HN // JNM