The President of the Republic admitted this Thursday to forward to the Constitutional Court (CC) the government’s proposal to withdraw the national offices of Interpol and Europol from the judicial police “if there is any doubt” about constitutionality.
On the sidelines of a visit to the Lisbon Book Fair, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was asked about a diploma that would transfer the responsibility of these bodies to the Prime Minister’s Internal Security System (SSI), but declined to comment that he did not know him.
“I don’t know the diploma and I don’t need to comment because it is in the parliament and the parliament will discuss and vote. What I can say, and I have said with regard to other diplomas, is that if I have unconstitutionality, I send it to the TC,” he said, recalling that he had already said the same about other texts, such as metadata.
The head of state refused to answer whether this proposal would violate the principle of separation of powers, limiting himself to repeating that “in the event of a question about the constitutionality of a particular practice of the system,” he would send the diploma for a preventive check in the Customs Union.
“But I will have doubts only after I see the final text of the parliament,” he said.
Europol at the European level and Interpol at the global level are structures that provide information of a criminal nature to various police forces in the framework of cooperation aimed at combating various types of crime, including drug trafficking, bank fraud, money laundering. and arms trafficking.
According to Público, the government intends to transfer the national offices of Interpol and Europol to the Single Point of Contact for International Cooperation (PUC-CPI), an entity controlled by the Secretary General of the Internal Security System (SSI). .
The intention of the government, the newspaper notes, is contained in a bill submitted by the government to the Assembly of the Republic, and involves the revision of the Law on the Organization of Criminal Investigation, as well as amendments to the Law on Internal Security.
When asked by journalists whether he agrees with the government’s intention to end the mandatory wearing of masks in public passenger transport due to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced at the Council of Ministers meeting, the President of the Republic declined to comment.
“I saw how it was covered in the media, but I haven’t seen the text yet,” he said only.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
