Portuguese Parliament - contacts

A key concept in democracy is that deputies are exactly that - they are just the representatives of the People in the parliamentary assembly, and, as any employee, should be held accountable. As so, let me include here a number of key contacts, publicly available through the Portuguese Parliament website. I strongly encourage you to contact these groups, and hold them liable for their actions.

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido Socialista				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800204342 (linha verde) / 213919264 Fax: 213917444
				Enviar e-mail

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido Social Democrata				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800205156 (linha verde) Fax: 213917443
				Enviar e-mail

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido Popular				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800205158 (linha verde) / 213919233 Fax: 213917433
				Enviar e-mail

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido do Bloco de Esquerda				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800204027 (linha verde) / 213917592 Fax: 213917459
				Enviar e-mail

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido Comunista Português				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800200358 (linha verde) / 213919202 Fax: 213917432
				Enviar e-mail

Grupo Parlamentar do Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes"				Palácio de S. Bento 1249-068 LISBOA
				Tel.: 800205154 (linha verde) / 213919294 / 213919203 Fax: 213917424
				Enviar e-mail

On a Moody's mood

Moody's recent decision of severely downgrading Portuguese debt rating, despite the support of the IMF and EU to the economy and reforms being done in the country, just highlights the needfor Europe to establish the necessary institutions, policies and tools to actually gain freedom and room in the global economic stage. We need credible and independent European rating agencies - and we need them now!

http://economia.publico.pt/Entrevistas/Detalhe/agencias-de-notacao-tem-uma-agenda-escondida-hostil-ao-que-se-passa-na-europa_1501796

A dangerous decision

A Dutch court declared Holland was responsible for the death of 3 citizens (muslims) at the hands of the bosnian-serbian army. It stands that the Dutch military (serving as part of UN's "Blue Helmets") didn't do enough to protect the muslims during the Srebrenica massacre, in which 8000 muslims were slaughtered, on what is Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

It is true that the Blue Helmets were sent there as a preventor to any attack - and that attack still happened. But it is only irresponsible not to look at the very limited mandate that they were in at the time, carrying only light weapons (hand guns to be more precise), despite facing a heavilly armed army - and they were not even cleared to use those light weapons! What happened was not the Dutch State responsibility, but actually a curtailed mandate from the Security Committee to the UN!

And now... if you were Holland, would you be willing to committ troops to the Blue Helmets again? This is a very dangerous decision...

http://www.publico.pt/Mundo/estado-holandes-responsavel-pela-morte-de-muculmanos-em-srebrenica_1501503

He is right! (at least partially)

Jacek Rostowski (Poland's Finance Minister) just criticized European Union plans of help to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, by saying they aren't enough focused on economic development - and he is right. Those plans focus too much on guaranteeing debt payment and not enough on solving the root causes of the competitive underperformance.

Still, the commitments that were signed by Portugal will nevertheless help Portuguese competitiveness in the medium-run. The fact is that forcing State simplification and fueling competition in some key sectors will actually free barriers for economic growth. And I really don't think that any country should expect the EU to come to a solution to their problems - EU will give a push, but many of the issues that riddle Portuguese economy nowadays will need to be sorted out by ourselves. And we are committed in doing that!

http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/polonia-critica-planos-de-ajuda-a-grecia-irlanda-e-portugal_1501169