The Ports of the Algarve will be managed and designed by a new entity whose "shareholders" will be the 16 Algarve municipalities that make up the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve (AMAL), Docapesca and the Administration of the Ports of Sines and Algarve (APS) .
For this purpose, this Friday, in Portimão, a protocol was signed that foresees the creation of the Installation Committee of this future new entity «Portos do Algarve». The commission includes representatives from AMAL, Docapesca, APS, and three representatives from as many ministers: Finance, Deputy and even the Sea, which it will coordinate.
The creation of that future entity is presented as an absolute novelty. Deputy Minister Eduardo Cabrita underlined that this is a "great challenge for the reform of the State" and that the intention is "to do in the Algarve what can be an example for the entire national territory".
Deeply knowledgeable about the Algarve's reality, where he even has family roots, Eduardo Cabrita underlined that «the Algarve, in this matter, has unique conditions to be exemplary, due to its cohesion and territorial dimension».
The Minister of the Sea, for her part, stressed that this is "a different and unique protocol", since "it is not only decentralization for the municipalities, but above all a challenge for the region", because it involves transferring "the management », but also «strategic planning, to know what investments and where to look for funding sources».
«Across the country, we are going to transfer the management of recreational boating to the municipalities, but it will be case by case. Only in the Algarve is there this logic of region, in which all marinas, recreational ports and commercial ports will be part of this new entity, whose management will be chaired by the municipalities, through AMAL», reinforced the official.
Ana Paula Vitorino, who had already considered the signing of the protocol as “a fantastic moment”, explained to journalists, at the end of the session, that the document “provides for the creation of the Installation Committee to prepare an entity with these three “shareholders” to manage all the ports of the Algarve, initially the commercial ports of Portimão and Faro and also all recreational nautical installations, and, in a second moment, perhaps installations linked to fishing».
These, for now, and for reasons that have to do with the characteristics of fishing activity, are left out. The minister explained that it is "very difficult at this time for municipalities to assume responsibility for fishing facilities, as they do not have funding sources, they are not profitable, everything is financed by the State Budget." And they also lack «the know-how specific".
A difficulty that Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL, assumed: «it would be a problem if the skills in the fishing area were already transferred, because we are not prepared. We will discuss this in the working group, but obviously it has to be progressive».
The minister also added that "the Installation Committee has to do several things", immediately decide on the legal model for the future entity, "if it is an ACE, if it is a SA". But also, he added, deepen the survey of current conditions, "to identify the interventions that have to be made and the phasing and accounting of the costs inherent to these interventions."
What is intended, reinforced the Minister of the Sea, is "to transfer the management of all this to the region, not to each of the municipalities". And it is about «passing on the capacity not only to manage, but also to carry out the strategic planning of all the ports in the Algarve», which is an entirely new practice.
"This entity will, in the future, have all the skills for management, investment and strategic planning, and will have three shareholders, which is the region itself, represented by AMAL, Docapesca and APS," he said.
And so that there is no doubt about who will be in charge of this future entity «Portos do Algarve», Ana Paula Vitorino made a point of clarifying that «AMAL will always have the presidency of this entity, whatever its legal nature».
Within the scope of this new philosophy and without prejudice to new guidelines that may be decided either by the Installation Committee or by the future entity, the two ministers came to Portimão to announce "almost 30 million euros of investment", until 2020, in the Ports of Algarve, and part of these millions will be private investment.
A large part of this investment will go to the cruise and commercial port of Portimão. Ana Paula Vitorino announced that, «in principle, what is planned, unless there is a change defined by the region, is that, in relation to Portimão, a much greater focus is given to the cruises. It will be a strong bet in the increase of cruises, more than tripling the passengers, in the horizon until 2030».
To achieve this, "almost 20 million euros of investment are planned, all of it public investment, about half coming from national sources (Port of Sines) and the other half from community funds, which are also already guaranteed by Compete," he explained. the Minister of the Sea.
What the government official classified as a "very strong investment", will be completed "by 2020" and there are already defined deadlines: "in 2017 and 2018, studies and projects will be carried out, and between 2019 and 2020, the works will be carried out". which include works on the canal, the rotation basin and the terminals.
Despite this strong commitment to Portimão as a cruise port, this infrastructure will also maintain its status as a «commercial port, that is, for goods», guaranteed the minister.
For more because, for the dying Commercial Port of Faro, where there is no longer any movement of goods since the Cimpor cement factory stopped working, the plans are for a profound change in its vocation.
«As for the Port of Faro, the issue is different», said the minister. “What is on the table is a proposal to transform the commercial port into a marina area, linked to recreational nautical activities”. This will be precisely a matter that "will have to be analyzed within the scope of this new entity, whose Installation Committee has now been created," he added.
"We are making history", said Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL and himself mayor of Tavira. "We will prove that local authorities do much better, with less conflicts, better management, spending less money and still being friendly to investors," he guaranteed.
"AMAL is strongly committed to the success of this project," added Botelho. And this commitment of the Algarve mayors was seen in the session, which was attended by the mayors of Portimão, Tavira, Lagos, Castro Marim, Aljezur, Vila Real de Santo António and Monchique, as well as the vice-chairs of Loulé and Portimão, among other mayors , and many regional and national officials linked to ports and the sea. Nobody wanted to be left out of this beginning of the new life of Portos do Algarve.
Isilda Gomes, host of the session as president of the Portimão Chamber, commented: "what has been done and announced here today is a great happiness for all the Algarve's mayors and especially for all Portimão".
In addition to the ports and recreational nautical areas, the riverside areas, which are no longer used or intended for ports, will now be managed by the municipalities, but here in a movement of decentralization that extends to the whole country.
All so that, as the Minister of the Sea said, “the Maritime Police does not have to spend its resources inspecting the berlin balls on the beaches”.
And here, too, there are deadlines defined by the Government: «our proposal will be discussed by the National Association of Municipalities by the end of January, to take to Parliament in the first quarter of 2017, to apply in the next municipal cycle. The mayors who will be elected in October 2017 will already have a new framework of competences, which will be reflected, in financial terms, in the State Budget for 2018», explained Minister Eduardo Cabrita.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação:
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