The president of the association has urged the government for “unequivocal and pragmatic implementation of the reforms that the country has long needed.” He asserted that “Portugal faces a decisive opportunity for a true reformist push that can ensure sustained economic growth, social justice, and state modernization.”
Sedes advocates for the definition and execution of six “priority reforms, whose necessity has been widely recognized but continue to be postponed”: tax reform, budget reform, and improvement of public accounts quality, public administration reform, Social Security reform, reforms in the economic-financial judicial system, and the reform of nomination processes in regulatory and supervisory authorities.
For the association, it is “urgent to advance with a deep, comprehensive, and integrated tax reform centered on social justice, equity, and economic competitiveness,” which should be prepared by an independent commission.
Sedes also supports the “sustained reduction of public debt” and the reform of the Social Security system, calling for a debate on “mixed distribution and capitalization models” that is “uncontaminated by ideological debate about public or private nature.”
Regarding public administration, the association believes it “should be based on management audits of public services, reviewing their structure and eliminating redundancies and the proliferation of entities with special statutes without proper justification.”
“It is also necessary to reformulate processes and procedures, as well as review laws and regulations to make them simpler, coherent among themselves, and eliminate all those deemed unnecessary,” it adds, calling for a review of the “selection, appointment, and remuneration processes of senior managers.”
Sedes further calls for the elimination of blockages in the judiciary and the acceleration of decisions “essential to economic life,” with greater efficiency in combating economic and financial crime.
The association led by Álvaro Beleza also states that heads of regulatory entities, including the governor of the Bank of Portugal, should be chosen via international public competitions, “with evaluation by a specialized independent committee and final appointment after parliamentary hearing.”
Álvaro Beleza, who signed the note, calls for these six reforms to “be placed at the center of government action, with urgency, consistency, and strategic sense,” arguing that “Portugal’s future demands more than continuity, it demands transformation with responsibility” and “political courage.”
The association also advocates that the creation of the Ministry of State Reform “constitutes a relevant step,” but warns of the need for it to be “equipped with appropriate means and decision-making processes.”
“State reform is a broader concept than public administration reform, encompassing topics such as the functions of the state, the country’s administrative organization, and the electoral law itself. As all these topics are very relevant, it seems desirable that they are addressed separately, giving priority to a public administration reform and, in line with what has been advocated by Sedes, the reform of the electoral law,” the note further states.
The program of the XXV Constitutional Government was delivered today to the Assembly of the Republic and will be debated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The document has 10 priority axes, committing to “an income policy that values work and savings, merit and social justice,” state reform, or “creating wealth, accelerating the economy, and increasing added value.”
The government’s other identified priorities include “regulated and humanistic immigration,” the functioning of public services “with quality,” a focus on “closer security, faster justice, and combating corruption,” housing, construction of new infrastructure, the “union through water” project, and a “strategic defense investment reinforcement plan.”
