The Council of Ministers, at the April 3rd, 2024 meeting, approved the draft Decree-Law on the Organisational Structure of the Civil Protection Authority, presented by the Minister for the Interior, Francisco da Costa Guterres.
This draft Decree-Law, following the Civil Protection Law and the Organic Law of the 9th Constitutional Government, aims to redefine the organisational structure of the Civil Protection Authority (APC – acronym in Portuguese) to prevent, mitigate and respond to various emergency and disaster situations.
The APC is the public service entrusted with the State’s duties in civil protection matters, covering the entire national territory. Its primary responsibilities include planning, coordinating, and implementing civil protection policies, raising public awareness of safety issues, and coordinating protection and rescue actions in emergencies and disasters.
The APC’s bodies include the President, Executive Director, and the National Commander for civil protection operations. The President is appointed based on criteria of technical competence and relevant professional experience and is responsible for the direction of the service, subject to the authority of the member of the Government responsible for the area of internal security and civil protection.
To guarantee an efficient and coordinated response in emergencies, the Civil Protection Authority is set up as a service that will have six national directorates within its structure – the National Fire Brigade Directorate, the National Prevention and Mitigation Directorate, the National Emergency and Response Directorate; the National Recovery Directorate, the National Disaster Risk Management Directorate and the National Resource Management Directorate – the entities primarily responsible for the respective areas of Civil Protection and which will implement the deconcentration of services throughout the country, materialising the regional and municipal Civil Protection systems.
With the enactment of this Decree-Law, Decree-Law no. 11/2022 of March 9th, on the organic structure of the APC will be repealed.