Firefighters League asks government to contract programme for funding

A Portuguese Firefighters League (LBP) today asked the government to create “very quickly” a program contract for funding humanitarian voluntary firemen’s associations, as the current model “is uncertain”.

“Our main concern is the budgetary issue,” said LBP president António Nunes at the end of the National Extraordinary Council meeting of the League, which took place in Celorico de Basto, in Braga district.

António Nunes added that, while discussing the State Budget for 2027, the concern at the meeting was “much around the chronic underfunding” of voluntary firemen’s humanitarian associations, a problem that has been going on for over a decade.

“ What was most stressed was the need for the program contract to appear very quickly. A fundamental aspect for the balance of management of humanitarian institutions”, he said.

António Nunes explained that LBP advocates the replacement of the current financing model, which it considered “incorrect and depends on the activity” of each corporation, for a contract model program that is foreseen in the government program and already several times requested to the Ministry of Internal Administration.

This week, the Minister of Internal Affairs said that funding to firefighter corporations within the State Budget will increase by more than 5% next year.

This increase was announced after the League criticised the value of around EUR 37 million initially foreseen in the proposal of the State Budget that the Government delivered to the Assembly of the Republic.

Despite agreeing to the increase, the person responsible considered that “there is constant uncertainty in the support the State gives, regardless of whether it is the State Budget or whether it is specific support, that most of the times are promised and then not fulfilled in the expected time”.

Other issues discussed at the National Extraordinary Council of the League were – according to António Nunes – the three diplomas currently under discussion in the Ministry of Internal Administration, namely the career of firefighters with employment contracts in humanitarian associations, the question of insurance and the typification of firemen.

“The diploma of typification and careers also contributes to the definition of the program contract, requiring the Government by the end of the year to present these projects for public discussion within the humanitarian associations that want to make their contributions,” he said.