TC announces decision on the Foreigners Law

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa did not hold back from criticizing the legislation approved by the PSD, CDS-PP and Chega in the request submitted to the Constitutional Court.

For the President of the Republic, the changes in the rules related to family reunification and the conditions for its exercise, the deadline for the assessment of applications by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) — which increases from the current three to nine months, with the possibility of extension for the same period — and the right to appeal decisions may represent violations of “ the principles of equality, proportionality, legal certainty, proportionality in the restriction of rights and access to justice, equality and effective judicial protection, family unity, and the linking of administrative activity to the Constitution.”

At various points in the legislation, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made a point of drawing attention to the “ conceptual vagueness” and the “recourse to indeterminate concepts”, thus jeopardizing the legal certainty of the new regulatory framework, in addition to potentially fostering “ differentiated and discriminatory treatment” in a matter that he considered to be of “high sensitivity”.

The urgency defined by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for the ruling by the Constitutional Court judges on the constitutionality of some norms of the Foreigners Law reduced the analysis period to 15 days, which ends this Friday.

In the request sent by the President of the Republic to the TC, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa requested preventive review of the constitutionality of the rules on the right to family reunification and the conditions for its exercise, on the deadline for the assessment of requests by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) and the right to appeal.

At issue is the approval of changes to the legal regime for the entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners from national territory.

Good afternoon.

Welcome to the liveblog article about the announcement of the Constitutional Court's (TC) decision regarding the constitutionality of several norms of the so-called Foreigners Law, following the request for preventive inspection presented by the President of the Republic, as a matter of urgency, on July 24th.

The TC announced this afternoon that the public reading of the decision will take place from 5 pm, in the Public Acts Room of the Ratton Palace.

The diploma was approved on July 16 in the Assembly of the Republic, with favorable votes from PSD, Chega and CDS-PP, abstention from IL and votes against from PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP.