DILI, 14 february 2022 (TATOLI) – The Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), Zacarias Albano, said today that five of the countries that make up the organization have already ratified the Mobility Agreement, having sent the notification to the respective secretariat.
“So far, only five countries assigned to the CPLP have completed the ratification process. In the meantime, they have already sent the notifications to the Secretariat in Lisbon. The technical term used in legal language is ”Deposit of the Instrument of Ratification,'” Zacarias Albano told Tatoli, via WhatsApp.
Five countries are part of this lot: Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
“The process concerning Brazil is already at a very advanced stage, as are those of Angola and Timor-Leste. We just don’t have information about the Equatorial Guinea process,” he explained.
The five countries that have seen their internal process concluded can, as Zacarias Albano says, implement a part of the Mobility Agreement, namely with regard to visa-free diplomatic and service passports.
“It should be noted that there are other possibilities for mobility. Thus, each Member State must subsequently conclude partnership agreements with other CPLP countries that have already ratified the said agreement, in the modalities that most interest them. I remind you that the agreement is just a general agreement,” he said.
According to Zacarias Albano, in the additional partnership agreements, each Member State will be able to choose the mobility modality that best suits it to carry out its implementation, taking into account the different groups of beneficiaries.
“The agreement will come into force as soon as each CPLP country completes its ratification process”, he said.
The executive secretary begins, this Monday, an official visit to Brazil, recalling that the Government of Brasília and the Chamber of Deputies have already approved the Mobility Agreement, having subsequently submitted it to the Senate for final ratification. The visit will also serve to discuss with the Brazilian authorities, among other topics, the mobility agreement.
The head of the Lusophone Community also stressed that the executives of Angola and Timor-Leste had approved and sent the final approval of the document to their respective national parliaments.
Asked about the ratification process of the Mobility Agreement in Timor-Leste, Zacarias da Costa said that “the internal process is not yet concluded”. Therefore, “the National Parliament needs to accelerate ratification to be submitted to the Head of State and published in the Jornal da República de Timor-Leste.
“The proposed resolution of the agreement was approved by the [Timorese] government. Now, the National Parliament has to put it on its agenda so that it can be ratified as soon as possible”, he suggested.
Journalist: Domingos Piedade Freitas
Editor: Maria Auxiliadora/Rafy Belo
Translator: José Belarmino De Sá
