A delegação de competências dos municípios para as entidades intermunicipais

: uma delegação perante uma entidade superior?

Abstract

The law of Local Authorities from the 12th September 2013 has approved a new
legal framework about delegation of powers between municipalities and intermunicipal
entities. Some authors think that this is the kind of delegation “from above”, because
intermunicipal entities include a bigger territory than the municipal authority itself,
which makes the former a superior authority. However our opinion does not go on that direction: firstly because the Portuguese local public organization does not allow the qualification of intermunicipal entities as a local authority, considering the “legal type” principle that states that local authorities can only be administrative regions, municipalities and civil parishes (freguesias) (art. 236. º of the Portuguese Constitution). Secondly, this delegation of powers has the purpose of coordinating those local authorities which ask for a legal way to solve problems that affect a major territory and population than the ones of a single municipality. Additionally, we need to take into account the fundamental principles of the municipal law, such as Local Autonomy and Subsidiarity. It derives from these
principles that the delegation of competences between municipalities and intermunicipal
entities is a good solution for the former, since it enables them to best manage their own
interests. Furthermore, it permits that problems which are originated in a broader area
than the municipalities’ jurisdiction can be solved in a more efficient way.
The above-mentioned delegation of competences is based on a interadministrative contract to the pursuance of administrative activity and in which both parties are legally equal.
Without having a political opinion about the administrative regions, which were
not approved by the referendum of 1998, we believe that the function of coordinating
the action in a larger territory is for the moment the best solution that could be found to
solve problems of a larger territory that the municipality could not do by itself neither in
a legal way nor in an efficient one.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Gonçalo Matias (Supervisor)