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BE’s proposal to cancel the transfer of 476 million euros to Novo Banco, voted in favor on Thursday by PSD, BE, PCP, PEV, Chega and the unregistered deputy Joacine Katar Moreira, abstaining from PAN and CDS-PP, ” It is a circus number, irresponsible it is true, but it does not violate the Constitution, nor the Framework Law on State Budgets, “Rogério Fernandes, a lawyer and former Secretary of State for Finance in the second Government of António Guterres (PS), told Lusa Ferreira.
The former professor of Public Finance and Financial and Budgetary Law, at the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon, understands that what the Constitution and the Budgetary Framework Law (LEO) impose is, “only, that the Budget Law of the Indicate ‘take into account’ and ‘take into account’, respectively, ‘expenses derived from the law and the contract’ ”.
Therefore, they oblige the Government, in the first place, to include them in the budget bill that it presents to the Assembly of the Republic. But they do not impose on the deputies, when discussing and approving the budget law, to maintain this registration. or reject it or modify it ”, advocates the member of the working group that was appointed by Sousa Franco to prepare the draft Budget Framework Law published by the Ministry of Finance.
According to the former president, “the powers in this matter and in this period, of the Government and the Assembly of the Republic, are, respectively, to propose and approve, or reject or modify the proposed Budget Law.”
“These powers are exclusive to each of these sovereign bodies and are absolute and cannot be delegated,” he said.
However, BE’s proposal, approved by parliament, prevents “the Government from fulfilling and honoring a prior contractual commitment that it has entered into on behalf of the Portuguese State”, whose associated expenditure “cannot be made if and while it is not included in the Budget”.
According to the lawyer, “the truth is that any breach of a contractual clause due to the impossibility of making the expense (not budgeted) will always generate civil liability (contractual) and compensation, both for consequential damages and for lost profits, without any doubt. Declared by judicial sentence “.
The former professor of Public Finance also added that “these ‘expenses derived from any court ruling’ must also be taken into account and ‘considered’ in the budget law.”
“Now, during the budget execution, the deputies, even those who approved this BE proposal, cannot propose the inclusion of ‘new’ expenditures,” on pain of violating the braking law, explained Rogério Fernandes Ferreira to Lusa.
Thus, “either the expense is due to its own line or to the line of execution of the sentence -which certainly the estimated value will not allow- or the circus will continue, imposing, already during the budget execution of 2021, a new reform Law proposal budget of the Government’s own initiative, “concluded an amending budget.
The Plenary of Parliament this Thursday confirmed the vote on the specialty of BE’s budget proposal, which cancels the transfer of 476 million euros from the Resolution Fund to the New Bank.
In a confusing vote that had to be repeated, after being summoned and debated in plenary, PSD, PCP, PEV, Chega and the unregistered deputy Joacine Katar Moreira joined their votes to BE to make this change possible, despite the votes in against the PS, Liberal Initiative and unregistered deputy Cristina Rodrigues, and abstention from CDS-PP and PAN.
The Minister of State and Finance, João Leão, has already admitted, in statements to Rádio Renascença and RTP, that the Government can go to the Constitutional Court to analyze the proposal.
In parliament, João Leão also said that the proposal to cancel the transfer to Novo Banco “violates the Budgetary Framework Law, which obliges the State to budget for the commitments assumed.”
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