Lisbon, Nov. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Parliamentary Transparency Committee unanimously approved an order preventing MPs from accepting tickets to attend the Lisbon Web Summit tech event on the grounds that it contravenes the regulations on gifts, travel and hospitality.
A parliamentary source told Lusa on Wednesday that the Web Summit sent the PSD (social democrats) and PS (socialists) parliamentary groups - only them - an invitation to nominate MPs from their respective parties to attend the technology summit, which began on Monday in Lisbon's Parque das Nações and ends on Thursday.
According to the same source, the Web Summit would issue individualised tickets in the name of each of the chosen MPs.
Last week, the Parliamentary Transparency Committee analysed this invitation and concluded that each of these Web Summit tickets had a value of approximately €1,000, above the €150 limit that each MP can accept according to the regulation on gifts and hospitality.
On the other hand, the Web Summit organisers chose to send invitations to the PSD and PS parliamentary groups and not to the sovereign body, the Parliament, which also contributed to the unanimous decision taken by the Parliamentary Transparency Commission.
According to MPs contacted by the Lusa agency, if the Web Summit had sent an invitation to the Parliament, it would have been possible to consider setting up a parliamentary delegation (with MPs from different parties) to represent the sovereign body at the event. But this was not the route chosen by the Web Summit organisers.
The Web Summit, considered one of the biggest technology summits, brings together more than 3,000 start-ups, 70,000 participants, around 1,000 investors and 2,000 global media outlets in Lisbon, with 160 countries represented.
On Thursday, the Parliamentary Transparency Committee meets again, with an assessment of the issue of waiving parliamentary immunity on the agenda.
The issue, according to a parliamentary source, is to define a position on whether parliamentarians who make declarations in the context of criminal proceedings still have to waive their immunity in order to provide explanations in court.
One view is that the interpretation of Article 157(2) of the Constitution of the Republic should not be so ‘maximalist’. In other words, a member of parliament who becomes an assistant in a particular case does not have to go so far as to have their parliamentary immunity waived.
According to the Constitution, "MPs may not be heard as declarants or as defendants without the authorisation of the Parliament; in the latter case, an authorisation decision is mandatory when there are strong indications of the commission of a felonious crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of more than three years".
PMF/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
