Representative in Canada claims autonomy of the Council of Communities

The Councilor for the Portuguese Communities in Canada today called for more dynamism in the structure that represents emigrants abroad, demanding more “autonomy” to promote the defence of the Portuguese in the host countries.

“Our biggest problem and a great goal is autonomy. We want to be autonomous as an organism, but remain consultative,” told Daniel Loureiro.

The Communities Councilor in Canada, in Montreal, also stressed the importance of the organization being autonomous, maintaining adequate funding for the implementation of its activities.

To this end, the Council of Portuguese Communities must be “autonomous before the successive governments of the various political parties“.

“We want to be political but not partisan, that is, we want to fight for what we believe, which are the Portuguese communities.” Autonomy is a very important element for the council not only to be dynamic but also to be more proactive in the future ” he stressed.

For now, the Portuguese government’s advisory council intends to conduct a study on its autonomy and how it “will benefit the Portuguese communities.”

By 2019, the expected budget should be around 150 thousand euros, something that Daniel Loureiro considers to be insufficient.

“As the council of the Portuguese Communities is constituted, by the local sections, to operate with the minimum of objectives, 200 thousand euros is the minimum necessary for the basic operation,” he warned.

The goal is for Portugal to be “closer” to its communities and for communities to “be closer to Portugal“.

In this sense, the council intends to build its own website where the contacts of the councillors will be, an ideal tool for countries with the size of Canada, bringing the representatives of the communities closer together.

According to Ottawa, there are about 480,000 Portuguese and Portuguese descendants.