PROPOSED LAW NO. 130 /X

Exhibition of Motives

Local authorities have developed, since always, policies directed to help and

protection of persons and goods. Whether through the creation and maintenance of bodies of

firefighters sappers or municipal, wants to support very significantly the

bodies of volunteer firefighters, the municipalities and the freguesias have been consecrating

among its main policies, those which are directly linked to civil protection.

From the response to urban or forest fires and pre-hospital relief, the

municipalities have also passed on concerns in the scope of planning

territorial and management of serious accidents and disasters.

In the wake of the large fires that occurred in the years 2003 and 2005, the

municipal chambers created technical offices and developed defence plans of the

forest, at the same time that they realized operational plans.

Also the growing demands on the level of fire safety, the new

responsibilities in the context of the prevention of accidents involving hazardous materials and

concerns about the supply of drinking water or with the floods and floods

were demonstrating the need for the creation of structures that develop the study

of the risks, predict the occurrences of accidents and structure, planning and exercising,

the answers.

With the approval of the new Civil Protection Bases Act and with the realization of the

Integrated Protection and Relief System were also created the foundations of a

single command at the institutional and operational level it now needs to be

concretized, too, within the framework of municipalities.

The present legislative innovation promotes the integration of all instruments and

structures, while determining the articulation form of civil protection officers in the

scope of each municipality.

Ensuring that the mayor of the city hall is the municipal protection authority

civil, which in the municipal commission articulates representatives of all structures

public and private required for intervention in the face of serious accidents and disasters,

2 to 2

further defining the structure of municipal services and their competences and

concretizing the figure of the municipal operational commander, finishes the structure of

civil protection in all territorial ambits.

The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities and the Association were heard

National of Freguesias, and the optional title, the League of Portuguese Firefighters and the

National Association of Professional Firefighters.

The negotiation procedures arising from the Act No 23/98 of 16 have been complied with

of May.

Thus:

Under the terms of the paragraph d) of Article 197 (1) of the Constitution, the Government presents to the

Assembly of the Republic the following proposal for a law:

Article 1.

Object and scope

This Law sets out the institutional and operational framework of civil protection in the

municipal scope, establishes the organization of the Municipal Services of Civil Protection

and determines the competences of the Municipal Operational Commander in

development of Law No 27/2006 of July 3.

Article 2.

Objectives and fields of performance

1-Are fundamental objectives of municipal civil protection:

a) Preventing in the municipal territory the collective risks and the occurrence of accident

grave or disaster of them resulting;

b) Mitigate in the area of the municipality the collective risks and limit its effects on the

case of the occurrences described in the preceding paragraph;

c) To soccur and watch in the municipal territory the people and other living beings in

danger and protect cultural, environmental and high interest goods and values

public;

d) Support the reposition of the normalcy of people's lives in the areas of the municipality

affected by serious accident or disaster.

3 to 3

2-A municipal civil protection activity is carried out in the following areas:

a) Surveying, forecasting, evaluating and preventing the collective risks of the

municipality;

b) Permanent analysis of municipal vulnerabilities in the face of risk situations;

c) Information and training of the populations of the municipality, aiming at its

sensitization on self-protection and collaboration with the

authorities;

d) Planning of emergency solutions, aiming at the search, rescue, the

provision of relief and assistance, as well as evacuation, accommodation and

supply of the populations present in the municipality;

e) Inventorisation of the resources and means available and of the most easily

mobilizable, at the municipal level;

f) Study and dissemination of appropriate forms of protection of buildings in general,

of monuments and other cultural assets, of infrastructure, of heritage

archival, of essential services facilities as well as the environment and

of the existing natural resources in the municipality;

g) Prediction and planning of actions achievable in the eventuality of isolation of

areas affected by risks in the municipal territory.

Article 3.

Municipal civil protection commission

1-In each municipality there is a municipal civil protection commission (CMPC),

body that ensures that all entities and institutions of municipal scope

Essential to the operations of protection and relief, emergency and assistance

predictable or arising from serious accident or disaster are articulated to each other,

guaranteeing the means deemed appropriate to the management of the occurrence in each case

concrete.

2-Integrate the municipal civil protection commission:

a) The president of the city hall, who presides;

b) The municipal operational commander;

c) An element of the command of each existing fire department in the municipality;

d) An element of each of the security forces present in the municipality;

e) The health authority of the municipality;

4 to 4

f) The maximum leader of the local health unit or the director of the health centre

and the director of the hospital of the area of influence of the municipality, designated by the

director-general of health;

g) A representative of the services of social security and solidarity;

h) The representatives of other entities and services implanted in the municipality,

whose activities and functional areas can, in accordance with the existing risks

and the characteristics of the region, contribute to the civil protection actions.

3-Are competencies of municipal civil protection committees as assigned by law

to district civil protection district commissions that prove appropriate to the reality and

size of the municipality, specifically the following:

a) To actualize the drafting of the municipal emergency plan, to remetallise it for

approval by the National Commission for Civil Protection and accompany its

execution;

b) Follow up with policies directly connected to the civil protection system that

are developed by public servants;

c) Determine the actuation of the plans, when this is justified;

d) Ensure that the entities and institutions that integrate CMPC accompanies, to the

municipal level, within the framework of its organic structure and assignments, the

means necessary for the development of civil protection actions;

e) Disseminate communiqués and notices to populations and entities and institutions,

including the media bodies.

Article 4.

Standing subcommittees

In the municipalities where this is justified, in the face of the predictable frequency or magnitude of the

manifestation of certain risk, the municipal civil protection commission may

determine the constitution of permanent subcommittees, which have as their object the

continuous monitoring of that situation and the subsequent civil protection actions,

specifically in the areas of flood safety, fires of different

natures, biological or chemical accidents.

5 to 5

Article 5.

City chamber

1-Compete to the city hall, through the SMPC, the drafting of the municipal plan

of emergency for further approval by the National Commission on Civil Protection.

2-A The municipal chamber is heard on the establishment of measures to use the

soil taken after the declaration of the calamity situation, specifically how much

to special protection measures and preventive measures adopted for regulation

provisional of the use of the soil in bounded parts of the area covered by the declaration,

particularly by virtue of the suspension of municipal planning plans

territory or special planning plans of the territory.

Article 6.

President of the city hall

1-The chairman of the city hall is the municipal civil protection authority.

2-The chairman of the city hall is competent to declare the alert situation of

municipal scope and is heard by the Civil Governor for the purpose of the declaration of the

district-wide alert situation, when the area of the respective

municipality.

Article 7.

Joints of freguesia

The freighters ' joints have a duty to collaborate with municipal services of

civil protection, by providing all the help they are asked for, within their

assignments and competences, either own or delegated.

Article 8.

Local units

Depending on the specific location of certain risks, the municipal commission of

civil protection may determine the existence of local civil protection units of

scope of freguesia, the respective constitution and tasks.

6 to 6

Article 9.

Municipal civil protection services

1-The municipalities are endowed with a municipal civil protection service (SMPC),

responsible for the pursuit of civil protection activities in the municipal scope.

2-SMPC are the appropriate for the exercise of the protective and relief function, variables

in accordance with the characteristics of the population and the risks existing in the municipality and

that, when the size and characteristics of the municipality justifying it, may include

the technical offices that are judged to be appropriate.

3-The SMPC is directed by the President of the City Hall, with the faculty of

delegation at the councillor per se designated.

Article 10.

Competencies of municipal civil protection services

1-Compete to the SMPC ensuring the operation of all municipal bodies of

civil protection, as well as to centralize, handle and disseminate all information received

on municipal civil protection.

2-Within the scope of its planning and operations powers, it has the SMPC of the

following competencies:

a) Follow up on the elaboration and update the municipal emergency plan and the

special plans, when these exist;

b) Ensuring the functionality and effectiveness of the SMPC framework;

c) Inventorying and permanently updating the records of means and resources

existing in the county, with an interest for the SMPC;

d) Conduct technical studies with a view to identification, analysis and consequences

of natural, technological and social risks that may affect the municipality, in

function of the estimated magnitude and the foreseeable site of its occurrence,

promoting your cartography, so as to prevent, when possible, your

manifestation and to evaluate and minimise the effects of its consequences

predictable;

e) Keep up-to-date information on serious accidents and disasters occurring

in the municipality, as well as on elements concerning the conditions of occurrence,

7 to 7

to the measures adopted to cope with the respective consequences and the

conclusions on the success or unsuccessful actions taken in each case;

f) Planning the logistical support to be provided to the victims and relief forces in situation

of emergency;

g) To raise, organise and manage the accommodation centres to be actioned in a situation of

emergency;

h) Draw up prior plans for intervention and prepare and propose the implementation of

exercises and simulacons that contribute to an effective performance of all the

entities intervening in civil protection actions;

i) Studying the issues of which it comes to be entrusted, proposing the solutions that

consider more suitable.

3-In the areas of prevention and safety, the SMPC is competent to:

a) To propose security measures in the face of the inventoried risks;

b) Collaborate in the elaboration and execution of drills and simulacons;

c) Elaborate prevention and safety regulatory projects;

d) Carry out awareness raising actions for safety issues, preparing and

organizing populations in the face of foreseeable risks and scenarios;

e) Promote information campaigns on preventive measures, directed at

specific segments of the target population, or about specific risks in

provable scenarios previously defined;

f) To foster volunteerism in civil protection;

g) Studying the issues of which it comes to be entrusted, proposing the solutions that

understand more suitable.

4-As far as the subject of public information is concerned, the SMPC has the following

powers:

a) To ensure the research, analysis, selection and dissemination of documentation with

importance for civil protection;

b) Disclose the mission and structure of the SMPC;

c) Collect the public information emanating from the committees and offices that

integrate the SMPC intended for public disclosure regarding measures

preventive or disaster situations;

d) To promote and encourage dissemination actions on civil protection from the

municipes with a view to the adoption of self-protective measures;

e) Indicate, on the imminence of major accidents or disasters, the guidelines,

8 to 8

preventive measures and procedures to be had by the population to cope with the

situation;

f) To follow up on other procedures, by determination of the President of

city hall or councillor with delegated competencies.

5-In the forest scope the skills of the SMPC can be exercised by the cabinet

forest technician.

Article 11.

Coordination and institutional collaboration

1-The various bodies that integrate the municipal civil protection service must

establish among themselves institutional collaborative relations, in the sense of increasing the

effectiveness and effectiveness of the measures taken.

2-Such articulation and collaboration should not call into question the ultimate responsibility of the

chair of the city hall, and it should be articulated with the competences that,

in this matter, they fit the municipal civil protection commission.

3-A The institutional coordination is ensured, at the municipal level, by the CMPC, which integrates

representatives of the entities, whose intervention is justified in function of each

occurrence in concrete.

4-In the framework of institutional coordination, CMPC is responsible for the management of the

operating participation of each force or service in the relief operations a

trigger.

Article 12.

Participation of the Armed Forces

1-The chairman of the city hall is competent to request the President of the

National Civil Protection Authority the participation of the Armed Forces in

civil protection functions in the operational area of your municipality.

2-The speaker of the chamber may request the collaboration of the Armed Forces

directly to the commander of the unit deployed in his municipality, in the cases of

manifest urgency provided for in Article 53 (4) of Law No 27/2006 of July 3.

9 to 9

Article 13.

Municipal Operational Commander

1-In each municipality there is a Municipal Operational Commander (COM).

2-COM depends hierarchical and functionally of the mayor of the city hall a

who competes in his appointment.

3-COM acts exclusively in the territorial scope of the respective municipality.

4-COM is named from among the universe of recruitment that the law defines for the

dystrital operational commanders.

5-In municipalities with professional or mixed fire bodies created by the

respective municipal chambers, the commander of that body is, by inertia, the COM.

Article 14.

Competences of the municipal operational commander

Without prejudice to the provisions of the Civil Protection Basics Act, it competes in particular to the

WITH:

a) To permanently monitor the protection and relief operations that

occur in the area of the concelho;

b) Promote the elaboration of the prior plans for intervention with a view to

articulation of means in the face of predictable scenarios;

c) Promote regular meetings of work on matters of scope

exclusively operational, with the commanders of the fire department;

d) Give opinion on the material most appropriate to the operational intervention in the

respective municipality;

e) Appear at the site of the claim whenever the circumstances advise you;

f) Take up the coordination of municipal relief operations, in the

situations provided for in the municipal emergency plan, as well as when the

dimension of the claim rewants the employment of means of more than one body of

firefighters.

Article 15.

Operational articulation

10 to 10

1-Without prejudice to the hierarchical and functional dependence of the speaker of the chamber, the

COM maintains permanent link of operational articulation with the commander

district operational.

2-Exceptionally, when justified by the breadth and urgency of relief, the

national operational commander can articulate operationally with COM,

without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

3-In the municipalities of Lisbon and Porto the articulation to which the preceding paragraph is concerned is

permanent.

Article 16.

Civil protection operations

In a situation of serious accident or disaster, and in the case of danger of occurrence of these

phenomena, municipal operations of civil protection, of harmony are triggered

with the municipal emergency plan, previously drawn up, with a view to enabling the

steering unit of the actions to be developed, the technical and operational coordination of the

means to engage and the appropriateness of the measures of exceptional character to be adopted.

Article 17.

Duty of information

All services and bodies that obtain information, directly or by

third party communication, on elements considered fundamental for the purpose of

taking of civil protection measures, shall transmit such information in the shortest

interval of time possible, to the municipal civil protection commission of the municipality to

that they report.

Article 18.

Municipal emergency plan

1-The municipal emergency plan is drawn up with the directives emanating from the

National Committee on Civil Protection, namely:

a) The typification of risks;

11 to 11

b) The prevention measures to be adopted;

c) The identification of mobilizable means and resources, in an accident situation

grave or catastrophe;

d) The definition of the responsibilities that incuvates the bodies, services and

structures, public or private, with competences in the field of protection

municipal civil;

e) The criteria for mobilization and mechanisms for coordination of means and

resources, public or private usable;

f) The operational structure that there is-to guarantee the steering unit and control

permanent of the situation.

2-Emergency plans are subject to a periodic update and should be

object of frequent exercises with a view to testing its operationality.

3-Civil protection officers collaborate in the elaboration and implementation of the plans of

emergency.

4-The municipal emergency plan obligatorily includes a letter of risk and a

prior plan of intervention of each type of risk existing in the municipality, elapsed

the scale of the letter of risk and the detail of the prior plan of intervention of the nature of the

phenomenon and should be appropriate to its frequency and magnitude as well as to the

gravity and extent of its foreseeable effects.

5-In addition to a general emergency municipal plan, plans can be drawn up

special, on special risks, intended to serve specific purposes, such

as the municipal forest defence plan against fires and plans to

emergency of the educational establishments.

6-In the case of the areas of homogeneous risk prolonged by the territory of more than

a contiguous municipality can be drawn up special supramunicier plans.

7-In the municipalities in which this is justified, special plans may be drawn up on

specific risks, specifically relating to floods, fires of different

nature, biological or chemical accidents, mass movements or earthquakes.

Article 19.

Update of municipal emergency plans

Municipal emergency plans in place must be updated accordingly

with the new civil protection legislation, as well as with this Act, within 180

12 to 12

days counted from the approval of the technical guidelines by the National Commission of

Civil Protection.

Article 20.

Defence of the forest against fires

1-In each municipality there is a municipal forest defence commission against

fires, which can be supported by the forest technical office, being its creation,

composition and competencies regulated by the willing diploma.

2-The municipal chambers, in the field of the National Forest Defence System

Against Fires (SNDFCI) exercise the powers provided for in the Decree-Law n.

124/2006, of June 28.

Article 21.

Career of civil protection

The civil protection career is created by a diploma of its own.

Article 22.

Duty of availability

The service provided in the SMPC is of full availability, so the staff who in it

exerts duties cannot, unless exceptional reason duly justified, leave from

attend or remain in the service in case of imminence or occurrence of accident

serious or disaster, under penalty of incurryof disciplinary responsibility.

Article 23.

Training

1-A The training of SMPC employees is carried out at the municipal or national level,

owing to the rules of operation and the curriculum contents in the

regulation of the National Civil Protection Authority, approved by the Minister

of the Internal Administration, heard the National Board of Firefighters.

2-Are entities authorized to provide the training referred to in this Article, the

13 to 13

Center for Autarctic Studies and Training, the National School of Firefighters and the

School of Training of the Regiment of Firefighters Firefighters from Lisbon, and still the

too many entities that come to be recognized by dispatching ministers

responsible for the areas of the Interna Administration and the Local Administration.

Article 24.

Abrogation standard

It is repealed the Portaria No 449/2001 of May 5.

Article 25.

Production of effects

Municipalities adapt their services to the scheme provided for in this Law within the period of

180 days.

Seen and approved in Council of Ministers of March 15, 2007

The Prime Minister

The Minister of the Presidency

The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs