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The President of the Republic addressed a message to Parliament concerning the enacting of the bill that determines the competences, the structure and the operational procedures of the National Aeronautical Authority.

Following is the text of the message from President Cavaco Silva:

“I have enacted, to be published as law, Parliamentary Decree No. 125/XII, that determines the competences, the structure and the operational procedures of the National Aeronautical Authority.

The bill in question approves the regime required by national legislation, attributing to that Authority competence in aerial ruling, a very sensitive issue, given its nature and its involvement with constitutionally protected civil rights and liberties.

For this reason, the now authorized regime is included in the Parliamentary legislative competence, equally comprising the so-called “legal reserve”. The issues comprised in the legal reserve must be the object of comprehensive regulation through a legislative act. Although administrative activity is not closed in issues of civil rights and liberties, it has to be strictly bound to the legislation that, in its turn, must present minimum permeability.

In line with the above referred views, I believe it my duty to call your attention to the following two items:

1. The provisions of item k) of article No. 7, when attributing competence to the Office of the National Aeronautical Authority to “regulate the safeguarding of the national airspace system”, may only allow the competence to regulate what is strictly bound by law.
2. The exemplifying feature in §2 of article No. 13, resulting from the adverb “designedly”, suggests the possibility of the adoption of other measures, in addition to those expressly comprised, a possibility that should be removed due to the above referred “legal reserve”.

Considering the special relevance and sensitivity of this issue, it was my belief that I should alert Members of Parliament to these features of the bill”.