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DRAFT LAW NO. 473 /X

ACCESS OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC A

DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION WITH CLASSIFICATION OF

SECRET OF STATE

1-A Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the law enshrine the right

fundamental access of citizens to the information and documents of the Administration and

of the organs of the State.

Transparency as a rule and secrecy as an exception are thus the expression

of a normal public life that extends to the most diverse levels of the activity

political, economic, social and administrative.

The exceptional nature of the state secret modulates in the understanding that

may only constitute closed subjects to the knowledge of the citizens the information,

objects or facts which, to be disclosed in an unauthorised manner, may entail

a damage, more or less significant, to the safeguarding of national independence, of the

unity and integrity of the state and internal and external security.

The Law No. 6/94 of April 7, which approved the regime of state secrecy, not

needed, however, in the respect for the powers ' own powers of sovereignty, the

conditions of the access of the Assembly of the Republic to information and documents

classified as a state secret.

Now, the need for regulation of this matter is all the more relevant as the

exercise of the supervising and legislative competences of the Assembly of the Republic

require an information and documentary access that cannot submit to a logic of

secret of state that excludes Parliament, as if this were not, also he, a

organ of the State.

The appropriateness between the institutional need for information of Parliament and the

self-made secret of state secrecy requires that they find rules and procedures

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that they compose, in a proportionate and effective manner, these relevant interests in

conflict.

Adding that the very law of state secrecy came to commit to the Assembly of the

Republic the surveillance of the regime of secrecy under the Constitution and the

Regiment and has established, together with this, the State Secret Surveillance Commission.

2-A proposal that we now present and resumes from previous legislatures,

in a writing that takes lessons from the parliamentary experience in the meantime, aims to give

response to the need for the completenment of the legislative and institutional building of the

regime of the secret of state.

And it goes to the meeting of the idea that, if it is true that the system of Government

hosted in the Constitution does not impose that the " parliamentary body has to have access, from

unlimited form, to the information and documents classified as a state secret

by the President of the Republic or by the members of the Government ", until by the very way of

operation of the parliamentary body and for the publicity that is inherent in its

activities, which you are commiserated with hardly with the requirements for booking in matter

of State secrecy " (in Judgment of the TC No 458/93), such cannot go to the point of

invitationable the normal exercise of the Assembly's constitutional powers gives

Republic, specifically those that respect the provisions of Article 162 (a)

surveil for compliance with the Constitution and laws and to appreciate the acts of the Government and the

Administration-, in Article 163 (f) (in conjunction with the provisions of the article

197 (1) (i) of the Constitution)-accompany and appreciate, in the terms of the law, the

participation of Portugal in the process of the construction of the European Union.

It is also reaffirmed that it is up to the Assembly of the Republic, and since 1997 only to this

(Article 161 (i) of the Constitution), " Approving the treaties, specifically the

treaties of participation of Portugal in international organizations, the treaties of

friendship, peace, defence, border rectification and those relating to matters

military, as well as the international agreements that verwithout matters of its competence

reserved or that the Government understands to submit to its appreciation " and, still,

specifically, the deliberations relating to the state of site and emergency or, in the

limit, the authorization to the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace.

Ora, such skills, among others, imply access to the state secret

as an essential need for the fulfillment of the functions of sovereignty that fit the

Assembly of the Republic, to which you cannot dissociate, in turn, from access

individual of the Deputies the reserved matter and, much less, the classified matter

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as a secret by the very President of the Assembly of the Republic. Evidently, the

Assembly of the Republic to adopt appropriate security procedures and ensure

for your fulfillment.

In this fixed framework-whether the legal framework and the status of the surveillance of the

secret of State by the Assembly of the Republic with the allocation of competences, the

definition of the composition of the Supervisory Commission of the State Secret and

consequent review of Articles 13 and 14 of Law No 6/94.

Thus, in accordance with Article 167 of the Constitution of the Republic, the Deputies

below signed from the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party present the following

draft law:

Article 1.

Subject

This Law sets out the terms and conditions in which the Assembly of the

Republic has access to documents and information classified as secret of

State and define the nature, composition and competences of the Commission for the

Surveillance of the Secret of State.

Article 2.

Principle of the need to know

The access to documents and information classified as state secret

occurs only when the Assembly of the Republic has a need to know the

their respective content with a view to fulfilling their supervisory powers,

of inquiry, or those provided for in Article 4.

Article 3.

Initiative of access

1-A Assembly of the Republic has access to the documents and information

classified as a state secret on the initiative of the President of the Assembly of the

Republic, parliamentary committees, committees of inquiry or the Conference

of Leaders or on the initiative of the Prime Minister.

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2-Access to the documents and information covered by the State secret

is required by the Government through the President of the Assembly of the Republic.

Article 4.

Access to state secret

1-A communication of documents and information with classification of secret

of State is ensured under conditions of appropriate secrecy and security:

a) to the chairpersons of parliamentary groups or to a representative of each

parliamentary group on the committee that has taken the initiative to apply for access,

including the commission of inquiry;

b) Exclusively to the President of the Assembly of the Republic and Chairman of the

commission that requested access, upon reasoned decision of the entity with

powers of classification, based on exceptional risk reasons.

2-The President of the Assembly of the Republic and the Government may defer,

grounded and for the strictly necessary time, the access to the secret of

State on the grounds of the course of international negotiations or for the safeguard of

relevant national interest.

Article 5.

Transmission of secrecy to parliamentary committee

The documents and information covered by the State secret may be

passed by the Government to the competent parliamentary committee to meet and appreciate

the matters relating to the provisions of Article 163 (f) and (i) of the article

197. of the Constitution at a meeting subject to secrecy and exclusively participated by the

Deputies of the respective committee.

Article 6.

Access to documents sorted by PAR

The documents and information classified as a state secret by the

President of the Assembly of the Republic is accessible to the Members in the terms of the

provisions of Article 4 of this Law.

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Article 7.

Right to information of Deputies

1-The access of the Assembly of the Republic to the State secret does not affect the

individual Member's right of access to information in the terms set out in the

Rules of the Assembly of the Republic and in the law.

2-A The refusal of information required by Deputies, in the terms of the article

156 (d) of the Constitution, can only be carried out, with the safeguard of the provisions of the

article 177, paragraph 2, of the Constitution.

Article 8.

Security of classified information

The President of the Assembly of the Republic defines, upon dispatch, the

instructions on safety of the classified information and candle by its application by the

parliamentary agents and services.

Article 9.

Commission of Surveillance of the State Secret

1-A The Supervisory Commission of the State Secret is an organ of the

Assembly of the Republic.

2-A The Commission shall be chaired by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, or

by vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic in which the latter has delegated that

function, and two more Deputies elected by the Assembly of the Republic, being one of them

proposed by the largest party that supports the government and another by the parliamentary group of the

largest opposition party.

3-It Is Incumbent on the Commission to ensure compliance with the law.

4-Compete to the Commission to arrange an up-to-date record of the documents

classified as a state secret, based on the elements sent by the

entities with power for such classification, in which they include the identification of each

a, generic indication of the theme, date and foundation of its classification.

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5-Compete to the Commission to determine, verified the omission of the entity in

competent principle, the declassorting of any information or documents, by

have elapsed the respective deadline or cease the reasons that substantiated it

classification.

6-A Commission approves its regulation, to be published in the Journal of the

Republic.

Article 10.

Abrogation standard

Articles 13 and 14 of Law No. 6/94 of April 7-Law do are repealed.

Secret of state.

Palace of S. Bento, February 29, 2008

The Deputies,