The former minister in the ‘Great Algarve oil and gas give-away’ Jorge Moreira da Silva has been appointed a Director General of the OECD whose remit included the environment.
The Minister of the Environment under the Passos Coelho government will take up residence in Paris to head the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development department after leaving his political career with large question marks over his attitude, ability and ethics.
In getting the OECD job, Moreira da Silva had the support of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and lobbying from Paulo Vizeu Pinheiro, the Permanent Representative of Portugal to the OECD.
Moreira da Silva said that the selection process was "long, demanding and very competitive" and that he is very "satisfied with the result and with the possibility of returning to actively participating at an international level, in development policies and cooperation, environmental protection and combating poverty."
His role as Director-General for Development and Cooperation is the highest in the OECD and Moreira da Silva will report directly to the Secretary General of the OECD.
As Minister for the Environment in the last government, Moreira da Silva pushed for and signed the oil concession agreements for onshore and offshore oil exploration and drilling just weeks before the Passos Coelho government fell last autumn while ignoring professional advice.
The onshore deal with Portfuel was particularly suspect as the company had not fulfilled the necessary requirements to become a concession holder. This did not stop the minister who signed way 75% of the Algarve’s land mass for two oil and gas exploration blocks with the deals including looking for underground resources and extracting hydrocarbons for a maximum of 40 years to a company with no staff or assets.
No environmental assessment was called for and when the Algarve’s anti-oil and gas activists found illicit drilling beginning at Rogil in the western Algarve, the drilling was halted and the concession process was subject to scrutiny from a special parliamentary committee at which Moreia da Silva’s performance could politely be described as flippant and unhelpful.
The royalty payments agreed on all the concession deals he signed were on the bad side of poor with no arrangements for the Algarve region to receive a cent from any future revenue streams despite carrying 100% of the risks involved.
Marked down as 'equal first' as a hate figure in the Algarve, having treated the region’s population and its mayors in a cursory and arrogant fashion, Moreia da Silva’s new OECD job that includes responsibility for the environment is already being criticised as inappropriate and misguided.
