The new Lisbon airport and the Parliament

Following the recent developments surrounding the public discussion of the location for the new Lisbon airport, which have questioned more strongly than before its location at Ota, the location which has so far been considered as almost final, the Portuguese Parliament has been taking a more public role in this process.

A one-day workshop was organised on this topic at the Parliament, held last Monday, and involving multiple stakeholders, as well as the representatives from the parties with a seat in Parliament (program at the end of this post). In a surprising move, the Minister of Public Works, Mário Lino, during his intervention at the workshop considered that more studies were needed in face of new information received on the conditions for the location of the airport at a location only rarely considered so far, at the shooting ground in Alcochete, and that he would be contracting LNEC to provide a new comparative study between the two locations.

It is indeed interesting that this change in position, with an opening to further views, was made public at the Parliament. Whether this is simply a happy coincidence, following the proximity of dates between the parliamentary workshop and the dissemination of the study by CIP which considered this new location, or also reflects the symbolic meaning of a deeper involvement by the Parliament, leading the Government to reconsider its stance, remains to be concluded, but it is clear that the Parliament intends to have a more visible voice in the process. An additional example of this is the request by the president of the Parliament to receive all the existing studies on this issue, namely the oldest ones which were not in its possession, as reported by Público.

What remains to be seen is who, within Parliament, will process the 40 thousand pages received… Certainly not the Parliamentary Office of Technology Assessment…

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COLÓQUIO

O NOVO AEROPORTO INTERNACIONAL DE LISBOA

Assembleia da República

11 de Junho / 9h30 às 18h00

Sala do Senado

PROGRAMA

09h00 – Recepção

09h30 – Início do Colóquio

Presidente da Comissão de Obras Públicas, Transportes e Comunicações (COPTC), Deputado Miguel Relvas

Ministro das Obras Públicas, Transportes e Comunicações, Mário Lino

10h15 às 13h00 – 1.º Painel “O novo aeroporto internacional de Lisboa: opções”

Moderadora: Vice-Presidente da COPTC, Deputada Irene Veloso

Dra. Paula Alves

Eng. José Lopes

Prof. José Manuel Palma

Prof. Paulino Pereira

(15 minutos por intervenção)

11h15 – Intervalo

11h30 – Debate

13h00 – Almoço

14h30 às 17h30 – 2.º Painel “Custos e modelos de financiamento e gestão do aeroporto internacional de Lisboa”

Moderador: Deputado Jorge Costa

Prof. Augusto Mateus

Prof. Diogo Pinto

Prof. Manuel Porto

Eng. Rego Mendes

(15 minutos por intervenção)

15h30 – Intervalo

15h45 - Debate

17h15 – Intervalo

17h30 às 18h00 – 3.º Painel

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do PS

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do PSD

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do PCP

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do CDS-PP

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do BE

Representante do Grupo Parlamentar do PEV

18h00 - Fim do Colóquio

ENTRADA LIVRE

Invitation

First of all, i’d like to welcome António Carvalho, our project’s newcomer, in www.scienceparliament.wordpress.com, hoping that the discussion around C&T issues for public policy could flow better with the richness of argument and enthousiasm that characterizes him.

Waiting for some engagement, it would be nice if we could discuss the case studies scope in  the new category – case studies – that i’m adding from now on. The main issues in discussion are around the parliamentary texts on nuclear power in Portugal and on the debate about ‘procriação medicamente assistida’ (medically assisted procreation). I’d like to invite you all for further discussion on these subjects…