[ad_1]
The APCC – Portuguese Association of Shopping Centers will present a complaint from the Portuguese State in Brussels, to prevent the alleged illegalities contained in the proposal of the new State Budget for 2021 on variable income, and warning “of the serious consequences in the sector of the proposal PCP ”regarding this matter.
“The Portuguese Association of Shopping Centers (APCC) warns that the proposal presented by the Portuguese Communist Party in the field of discussion on the specialty of State Budgets for 2021, in order to maintain the non-payment of minimum income until December 31, 2021, as well The way of granting retroactivity of the measure in force since March 18, 2020, is not only affected by unconstitutionality, but will have serious consequences for the sector, leading to the closure of shopping centers and the consequent closing of stores and loss of jobs. In the same sense, the association warns about the proposals on retroactivity presented by the PAN and by the non-registered deputy Cristina Rodrigues ”, highlights a statement from this association.
Thus, the APCC “will present a complaint from the Portuguese State in Brussels, for the unconstitutionality contained in the measures introduced by section 5 of article 168. A of the Complementary Law on State Budgets (LOES) and interference in the contracts signed between individuals ”.
“This unconstitutionality is attested by the opinions of three renowned constitutionalists: Professor Dr. Jorge Miranda, Professor Dr. Rui Medeiros and Professor Dr. Jorge Reis Novais,” the statement underlines.
Officials of the APCC add that, “in relation to the proposals to modify the State Budget presented, that is, by the PCP, to the association, it is clear that the intention is to further aggravate the disproportionate support and not only transfer all the risk of the pandemic to the owners, in addition to applying an additional sanction ”.
“The APCC recalls that this measure ends up damaging shopping centers in an unjustifiable, disproportionate and discriminatory way. For example, to illustrate the disproportion generated by this law in October, the month in which sales decreased by 20% compared to the same period last year, this law implied a 55% discount on rent. Of all Europe, the shopping centers in Portugal were the ones that most supported their tenants during this pandemic period, ”the statement in question said.
APCC officials say they still do not understand how, “in particular the PCP, is committed to treating different realities equally, benefiting large companies to the detriment of small tenants.”
“For the APCC, the PCP’s proposal, in addition to maintaining the unconstitutionality of the current situation, aggravates the injustices of the current situation,” says the statement under consideration.
“We believe that the Government of Portugal, Prime Minister António Costa and the Socialist Party will not go after these practices that endanger private initiative and that suffer from serious unconstitutionality, in addition to not solving the problems of owners or tenants that they really need. We believe that the alternative will be to have fair and balanced measures between the parties, and to create economic incentive procedures for owners and tenants, mitigating serious losses ”, comments António Sampaio de Mattos, president of APCC.
According to the aforementioned statement, “the owners and managers of the shopping centers have always been in solidarity with the tenants, having already supported more than 400 million euros in rental discounts this year, and are already negotiating agreements with the tenants. for the future that consider discounts in income proportional to the sales losses found ”.
“APCC recalls that the shopping center sector has a direct and indirect impact of more than 5% on the Portuguese GDP and is a business facilitator, allowing thousands of tenants to access millions of customers. The closure of a shopping center causes the closure of hundreds of stores and the loss of thousands of jobs ”, recalls the association of co-shopping centers of Portugal.
APCC has 93 shopping complexes in our country, comprising 8,600 stores, with a total accumulated Gross Leasable Area of 3.3 million square meters, which represents more than 90% of the total Gross Leasable Area in Portugal.
APCC is a member of the ICSC – International Council of Shopping Centers, a global organization based in New York that brings together 70,000 professionals in the sector on five continents and a founding member of the ECSP – European Council of Shopping Places, a structure based in Brussels. which brings together all similar European associations in the real estate retail sector.
[ad_2]
