Bar Association receives ANPL

President Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro welcomes ANPL’s willingness to collaborate on joint initiatives.

The National Association of Liberal Professionals (ANPL) was received on May 8th by the President of the Bar Association, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro, at the association’s headquarters in Lisbon.

The meeting, requested by the ANPL, aimed to share ideas and projects with the Bar Association, as well as the ambition to contribute to helping liberal professionals to be properly heard and recognized, helping to mitigate the trend towards proletarianization and remuneration degradation of these professionals and its consequences, such as the impact on the quality of services provided by freelancers, consultants and companies.

In addition to its President, Bastonária, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro, the Bar Association was represented by José António Covas, a member of the General Council. The ANPL was represented by its President, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, a dentist, and Elsa Veloso and João Ascenso, lawyers and members of the association’s governing bodies.

At the end of the meeting, Orlando Monteiro da Silva commented: “The ANPL thanks the productive meeting and the prospects for future collaboration outlined. We extend our congratulations to the President for her mandate, which also applies to all recently elected members of the governing bodies. We know that work organization is undergoing profound changes and liberal professionals and their counterparts, freelancers and consultants, will play an even more important role in the new realities that are emerging.”

“In the European Economic Area, at least one in six workers is engaged in a profession related to liberal professions, and the trend is increasing. In Portugal, despite already exceeding 600,000 regulated professionals, plus 400,000 engaged in self-employment, we see liberal professionals without representation and full defense of their interests, particularly in economic, fiscal and social protection aspects.”

“It is time to face and change this situation. In this sense, we are available to work with the Bar Association within the strict competence of ANPL’s main areas of focus. We found a very determined, focused and open-minded President regarding our organization.”

About ANPL: The National Association of Liberal Professionals, ANPL, is Portugal’s inter-professional voice for the defense and promotion of liberal professionals, freelancers and consultants, understood as “holders of intellectual qualifications, including those of artistic and cultural nature, promoting their responsibility, autonomy and independence in the best interest of consumers and the community as a whole.”

About the Bar Association: The Bar Association is the public representative association of professionals who, in accordance with the provisions of its statutes and other applicable legal provisions, practice law. The Bar Association is a legal entity of public law that, in the exercise of its public powers, performs its functions, including its regulatory function, independently of the State organs, being free and autonomous in its activity.