In comments to Lusa, Marina Gonçalves, Vice-President of the PS Parliamentary Group, criticized the announcements made over the weekend at the PSD Summer University by the Minister of State and Administrative Reform, Gonçalo Matias. Matias announced that the Government will soon launch the “one-stop shop for businesses” and review various licenses, including urban planning ones, to shorten construction timelines.
“These two aspects are already enshrined in the law and should be executed,” she pointed out.
According to Marina Gonçalves, the “one-stop shop for businesses already exists in Citizen Shops.” However, the deputy acknowledged that “it is worth assessing whether it is effective and thus improving the existing instrument.”
“It seems strange to us that something already existing is being announced as a major measure,” she noted.
For the PS deputy and former Minister of Housing, the same applies to licensing since “tacit approval is already in the law for urban planning” and “should be applied,” along with the timelines and “a set of licensing operations that are now exempt from licenses.”
“There is a set of intentions from the Government which either remain on paper without acknowledgment of the territory’s reality, which I don’t believe is the case…or the Government is presenting us with a set of buzzwords that seem like new measures just to then make some changes. I hope these changes are for the better, and we are here to evaluate the existing regimes,” she stated.
Marina Gonçalves, therefore, seeks explanations from the Government to “understand if this set of buzzwords represents an acknowledgment that the agenda left by the PS, which is still in force, is the right path and they want to make it more effective.”
“Or if, after all, there is a set of new measures that we do not know about, which conflict with this simplification agenda,” she questioned.
The PS deputy thus asks the minister to “effectively explain what innovations it will bring compared to what already exists” and how these announcements will be realized.
“Is tacit approval going to expand to other licensing areas that are not urban? Will the process become simpler or more effective according to the law? Will the one-stop shop incorporate more features? Will it replace what exists with a new tool?” she asked.
Gonçalo Matias was the guest speaker on Saturday night at a dinner-conference during the PSD Summer University and argued that the main goal of state reform is “to make life easier for people and businesses.”
After reviewing the measures taken by this new Ministry in the first month of the XXV Government, he announced others to be implemented soon, such as the creation of the “one-stop shop for businesses,” which he said should not be confused with the already existing shop for entrepreneurs.
“It is a new measure for centralization. Having a single point of contact for entrepreneurs in public administration. And to have a single voice, a single face, that will then channel to all other services,” he explained.
