Parliament lifted the limit on the number of deputies included in the investigative commission

This Friday, the Assembly of the Republic approved an amendment to the Legal Regulations of Parliamentary Inquiries, removing the limit on the maximum number of deputies who can join a commission of inquiry.

The bill, developed jointly by all parliamentary groups, was approved by a vote in favor of all supporters and a vote against by the only PAN MP.

Until now, this regime provided that each commission of inquiry would have “a maximum of 17 deputies, respecting the principle of representation.”

Following this change, agreed between PS, PSD, Chega, IL, BE, PCP, Livre and CDS-PP, this restriction was removed.

The law will now state that “the composition of the commission shall be proportionate to the representation of the parliamentary groups, and the number of members and their distribution among the various parliamentary groups shall be established by deliberation by the Assembly of the Republic, upon the proposal of its president, after consultation with the conference of leaders, which shall mention, in in the case of those demanding an investigation, MPs who are the only party representatives on the committee.”

In the bill, the parties argue that this “surgical and concrete change” is intended to “overcome the objective difficulty that the current rule maintains in constructing a pluralistic and balanced composition of commissions of inquiry, without a corresponding violation of proportionality in the distribution.” deputies by parliamentary groups, ensuring the presence in them of the only deputies representing the party only in cases where they are applicants in investigations approved by a resolution of the Assembly of the Republic.”

This bill was introduced today in the Assembly of the Republic and its inclusion in the agenda of today’s plenary session caused some discussion after the President of the Parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, asked the parties whether there was consensus to change the agenda to include this point, which later happened.

PAN’s only MP, Ines de Souza Real, asked to speak and said she had not previously been consulted “to get consent to include this in the voting script” but agreed with the change, saying “the point of the other bench voting to exclude PAN from Parliamentary inquiries will continue, whether this session or the next.”

PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares intervened and said that the issue “is not like [Inês de Sousa Real] I installed it.”

“As for the content of the proposal that will be put to the vote, I ask the President to explain to the House and to everyone who listens to us what will be voted on, whether true or not, that this rule will be voted on, because all parties are seeking its inclusion in the parliamentary regime investigation excludes or deprives individual deputies of their rights,” he asked.

José Pedro Aguiar-Branco stated that it was not his responsibility to “explain the content of this project” and indicated that “the Council has received indications that there is a consensus among all parliamentary groups regarding the possibility of changing the agenda.” .

After the vote, the leader of the BE parliament made an oral statement about the vote and denied “that there was any party or any parliamentary representation that Napo consulted in this process.”

“If that were the case, it would be impossible to even pass this bill at record speed,” he said.

Fabian Figueiredo also stated that “all parliamentary groups, based on the reflections that took place at the leaders’ conference, agreed that it was important to change the law governing the activities of commissions of inquiry and stipulating that each commission of inquiry can only have maximum powers.” of 17 deputies” because “as pluralism increased in the Assembly of the Republic, it became increasingly difficult to maintain the principle of representation with this limitation.”