“There is a 24 million euro investment here that transforms our Portuguese borders into safer borders,” declared the Minister of the Presidency, Leitão Amaro, during a visit to Lisbon Airport alongside his counterpart from Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco.
“When a human being enters, if he is Mr. João, the next time he must be Mr. João, because if he tries to be Mr. John, he cannot enter,” the minister exemplified, highlighting that Portugal “is becoming a much stronger, much more robust control and therefore more deserving of the trust of the Portuguese people.”
“When we took office, the program was completely unexecuted,” and, according to the government official, Portugal managed to make up for this, as it was at “risk of being suspended from full membership in the Schengen Area.”
The SES has already undergone testing, and Portugal has consistently passed, positioning the country to integrate into the European system starting in October.
“Portugal has many passengers from outside the Schengen Area: from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, South America, or Asia,” and “it will be a very demanding process from October onwards,” emphasized the government official.
The Minister of Internal Administration underscored the training efforts for PSP staff to adapt to this new model, which involves collecting biometric data of all visitors into a shared database with European partners.
“What we have been focusing on, from the Ministry of Internal Administration, is a strong component of empowering the police at the borders,” so that Portugal “continues to be a safe country,” said Margarida Blasco.
The new SES was presented to the government officials by members of the Internal Security System (SSI) and the PSP.
