There is no incompatibility between the mobility agreement between the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) – which allows individuals to apply for a residence permit in Portugal – and the Schengen regime, despite European Commission action, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs Tiago Antunes told Lusa.
The EU Commission is currently in contact with Portugal following the opening of an infringement procedure over the CPLP mobility agreement and insisted on the need for a “satisfactory response” within two months.
“The Commission is always in contact with member states, including on the issue raised last week about the infringement procedure,” the Home Affairs spokeswoman Anita Hipper said in a reply to Lusa.
Brussels pointed out that Portugal has two months to respond to the infringement procedure and that “in the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion” – the next step in this process.
On Monday, Antunes said that the mobility agreement between Portugal and the other countries of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) would continue.
“We [the Portuguese government] were surprised last week by the opening of the infringement procedure by the European Commission. We have some difficulty understanding this,” the secretary of state told Lusa.
Tiago Antunes added that the government had explained to the Commission on several occasions “that there is no incompatibility between the CPLP Mobility Agreement regime and the Schengen area regime.”
He said that the government “would never have adopted these rules if it thought they were in contravention of the Schengen regime”.
The doubts now raised by the European Commission, he added, are based on complaints from an individual citizen about whom Portugal had already provided some clarification.
Brussels opened an infringement procedure saying that “the CPLP Mobility Agreement provides for a residence permit that does not comply with the uniform model laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002. In addition, both residence permits and long-term visas issued for job-seeking purposes to nationals of CPLP states do not allow their holders to travel within the Schengen area.”
Since March, Portugal has been operating a new portal provided by the immigration and borders service, SEF, which enables CPLP immigrants with pending cases until 31 December 2022 to obtain residence permits automatically.
More than 154,000 Portuguese-speaking immigrants, most of them Brazilians, have applied for a residence permit through the ‘CPLP portal’, and more than 140,000 have received the document, according to SEF.
(André Campos Ferrão, edited by Cristina Cardoso | Lusa.pt)
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