The restoration of the Casa do Douro returns to Parliament on 23 March.

On March 23, the Parliament discusses the projects BE, PCP and PS, which restart the process of restoring Casa do Douro as a public association and intend to overcome the unconstitutionality indicated by the Constitutional Court in the previous law.

The parties are resuming the process of re-institutionalization of the Casa do Douro after the Constitutional Court (CC) declared unconstitutional certain provisions of Decree-Law No. 73/2019, which came into force in January 2020, in the summer of 2021. pointing out, in particular, the insufficiency of defining the competences of a public nature.

Left-wing bills defend the restoration of Casa do Douro, located in Peso da Régua, Vila Real district, as a public association with compulsory registration, a statute that has been amended by the government led by Pedro Passos Coelho.

The diplomas build on previous work involving Bloco de Esquerda, PS, PCP and Os Verdes and add to the Casa do Douro a public competence, namely the cadastre.

The PS wants to reconsider the public responsibility for the census of winegrowers, which was previously the responsibility of the Institute of Wines of Douro and Porto (IVDP), to include in the competence of the institution the registration of wine-growing plots in the Douro demarcation region and its project also focuses on the issue of benefit (the amount of port wine that can be produced by each grower) in its distribution and receipt of various manifestos, whether it be existence or production, also having an aspect in terms of monitoring the cultivation of the vineyard. and wine production.

The PCP defends the appropriation of the benefit, as well as “the possibility of intervening in the market, namely when there is excess production guaranteeing a fair price paid to the producer”, as well as the demarcated Douro viticulture register.

The BE also advocates that Casa do Douro should maintain and update a register of vine growers and all vineyard plots in the Douro, in accordance with rules that may be issued by the IVDP, designate production representatives in the IVDP Interprofessional Council, and support and encourage the production of wine in conjunction with the relevant services. , as well as providing support and technical assistance to winegrowers.

Both registration and exemption are IVDP, in the latter case approved annually by the Interprofessional Council, which includes representatives from production and trade.

The three diplomas also protect the transfer of the Casa do Douro property, which is its headquarters and is jointly owned by all winemakers in the Douro demarcated region located in Régua, deregistering the headquarters for the organization that won the private management tender. institutions.

They also point to elections after the recovery process, and PS and BE believe that the financial restructuring process applicable to Casa do Douro assets, which focuses on debts confirmed up to June 2016, should remain autonomous.

The Constitutional Court has considered an inspection request made by MPs PSD and CDS, parties that voted in Parliament against the re-institutionalization of the Casa do Douro, a process vetoed by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The law, which came into force on January 1, 2020, was the result of a joint bill by PS, BE, PCP and PEV and was approved by the Assembly of the Republic.

This law re-institutionalized Casa do Douro as a public association with compulsory registration and determined the holding of elections, which were even announced for May 16, 2020, a process that was suspended due to the covid-19 pandemic and was not resumed.

Casa do Douro was created in 1932 to intervene in the regulation of the market and provide a range of social and professional services to winegrowers in the demarcation region of the Douro with powers granted by the state, but for many years lived suffocated by debt. the state.

In 2014, the PSD/CDS-PP government amended the institution’s public law and compulsory membership status to become a private law association with voluntary membership.

Subsequently, a tender was opened for the private management of the institution, in which the Douro Reconstruction Federation won against another competitor, Associação da Lavora Duriense.