The Portuguese Government discussed, this European Thursday, in Brussels with what it considers to be “a significant deficit in the representation of Portuguese people” in the structures of the community executive.

The issue was addressed at a meeting between the European Commissioner responsible for Administration, the Austrian Johannes Hahn, and the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Tiago Antunes, who, in statements to Lusa after the meeting, guaranteed that this will be “a priority” of his mandate.

It went very well, it was an initial meeting in which I congratulated the European Commission on the recent presentation of a new human resources strategy and expressed Portugal’s availability and interest in being one of the first Member States with a national action plan to combat the deficit of the Commission of Portuguese representation in the structures of the European representation”, he indicated.

According to the Secretary of State, “Portugal in fact has a significant body for the presence of Portuguese nationals in the structures of the Commission”, which he says has been recognized by the European Commissioner himself.

“Commissioner Hahn recognizes that there is a Portuguese problem, which is not just Portugal’s, but Portugal is one of the member states that, in fact, has a representation deficit. We are significantly below our ideal quotawhich justifies the need for a national action plan for the Portuguese reality”, he said.

“We will work together with Commissioner Hahn’s office and his services to build this national action plan. Therefore, he was receptive to my willingness and availability and interest in Portugal being one of the member states in the forefront of the search for solutions to this problem”, he continued.

Stressing that he should count on Johannes Hahn that this will be “a priority” of his representative, Tiago Antunes told Lusa that, in this beginning of his duties as Secretary of State for European Affairs – a charge now under the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister, António Costa –, intends to “take this issue and help to correct this representation deficit”.

The official highlights the fact that this serum problem that is understood for several yearsbecause people have difficulty in accessing people to enter the lower levels of civil service, after people have more difficulty also for seniority levels and places of place”.

“Therefore, we want Portugal to be the best of the Portuguese, with a more significant number of institutions and employees occupying the highest positions of responsibility and management. And that will undoubtedly be one of the themes that I intend to dedicate myself, identifying to correct this representation deficit”, she said.

The Secretary of State revealed that this Thursday, even before the meeting with Commissioner Hahn, he met at the Permanent Representation of the European Union (REPER) with the Portuguese in the Commission to address the issue and “to map out a set of measures that can be studied to try Portuguese identity institutions in European institutions“, namely by publicizing how to access these posts, through preparation courses for competitions for access to the European civil service.

Tiago Antune explained that the strategy now proposed by the Commission, the “idea of ​​strategies, for those States, integrates in plans, responding to difficulties”, each time “Portugal has different reasons for specific difficulties”, and therefore justify a plan of action. specific action”.

Asked about the specific reasons for this Portuguese underrepresentation, the official said that a “diagnosis” is still being made, but a clue may not actually have the number of candidates “nor compare poorly, but then the number of candidates”. applications “successful applications in the entrance exams are in fact low”.

“This will probably have to do with the fact that these competitions are not the most suitable for the education system in Portugal. They rely a lot on computer tests, computed logic exercises, which Portuguese students are not very well prepared for students”, he explains.

According to the Secretary of State, “probably these of access and recruitment of the Commission have to be rethought, and the Commission is working like this”, but Portugal must also do “homework, through specific preparation courses, to better prepare candidates for this type of selection procedures”.

“This is an immediate problem, but it is a problem that leaves ballast, it can leave ballast for many years, and so we have to tackle it now. And there is a great sense of urgency to solve the problem, not only with the immediate benefit of bringing more people, younger people to enter the lower levels of this type of functions, but with that also a kind of “nursery” of people who later will be able to compete with internal promotions and come in the future to occupy intermediate management positions”, he underlined.

For Tiago Antunes, this is a “very important” issue, because although Commission officials do not defend the interests of the Member States, but rather the European interest, “their nationality, the understanding and understanding they have for the openness to interests, realities and national specificity”.

In the current «Von der Leyen Commission», there is no Portuguese in a position of director-general and several Portuguese employees working in the Brussels executive have recently retired or are in the process of doing so.