Urban public policies: towards the improvement of landscape ecological system. The case-study of the city of Évora, Portugal.

The Charter of European Planning 2013 presents a Vision for the future of European cities and regions, highlighting the sustainability of cities and the preservation of urban ecosystems, integrating the man-made environment with the natural ecosystems and contribute to the well-being and quality of life of their inhabitants and other stakeholders. Thus, urban public policies are crucial to the improvement of the landscape ecological system, achievable by city planning and design. The paper aims to analyse if public urban policies in Portugal have been integrating strategies and/or guidelines to enhance the ecological system of the landscape. Then, which new perspectives are possible, framed by the recently approved law Bases of Public Policy of Soils, Land Management and Urban Planning (2014). This new law, in contrast with the previous ones, don’t allow reserving land to urbanize, in municipal master plans. Moreover, it is possible to revert land classified for urban purposes in those plans into rustic soils (when it is not yet infra-structured or built). It allows creating new planning and design dynamics, convert several areas and including them in the urban ecological structure, essential to the enhancement of landscape ecological system. This is a filed of work where landscape architecture has huge responsibilities, by associating and harmonize man-made environment with natural systems, enlightening sustainability consistent with conservation and improvement of Nature while contributing to the well-being and quality of life of Man. A sustainability that is ethical, aesthetic, ecological and cultural. The study is supported by a case study – the city of Évora. The ultimate goal is to propose measures to promote larger and better integration of ecological component in urban public policies, framed by the new territorial management law, taking into account and highlighting the specificities of the landscape system – Man and Nature – at the local level.

Medidas de simplificação na administração fiscal e qualidade do serviço prestado: Reflexão sobre a evolução recente

Dada a crescente complexidade da relação fisco/contribuinte, das questões de natureza económica que lhe estão subjacentes, do peso que a fiscalidade tem nas mesmas, da sua relação com o direito, seja no âmbito do exercício do poder de autoridade em sede fiscal por parte do Estado, seja quanto à salvaguarda do exercício das garantias dos contribuintes, das relações que toda esta matéria motiva a montante e a jusante e da forma como a mesma interage, a temática da simplificação, da qualidade e dos custos indexados tem vindo gradualmente a merecer particular atenção por parte de governantes, profissionais e estudiosos da matéria. Assim, no âmbito do tema que nos propomos apresentar, atentos o vasto universo de situações possíveis e passíveis de enquadrar e considerar neste trabalho, cuja abordagem aqui se pretende explanar, será nosso objectivo centrarmo-nos no essencial, nas situações decorrentes das medidas de simplificação que têm vindo a ser implementadas ao nível da Administração Fiscal, em resultado da prática e dos procedimentos adoptados pela Direcção Geral dos Impostos (DGCI), no âmbito da implementação de medidas de política delineadas a nível governamental e cujos objectivos se têm vindo a consubstanciar na pretendida redução de custos de cumprimento e de custos de administração. Por consequência, está em equação a matéria relativa aos denominados custos de contexto face a assumidos objectivos ao nível da pretendida melhoria da qualidade no serviço a prestar ao cidadão contribuinte por parte da DGCI e do reforço da competitividade fiscal, afigurando-se também interessante abordar um ponto diferente nesta temática e que resulta do risco associado à implementação das referidas medidas, tanto na óptica do sujeito administrado como da própria administração, e à noção que o mesmo incorpora em sede de auditoria tributária e dos custos daí resultantes. ABSTRACT: Due to the growing complexity of the relation between tax authority and the taxpayer, the underlying economical questions, the importance of the fiscal issues, its relation with law, be in the context of the exercise of the power of authority in fiscal field by the State, be in the subject of the guarantees of the taxpayers, the relations as for which all these matter causes and in the form as it interacts, the issue of simplification, of quality and of indexed costs has been coming to deserve gradually particular attention by rulers, professionals and scholars. Attentive to the vast universe of possibilities that fit the theme and that could be considered in this work, our objective will be centered in the situations resulting :from the measures of simplification that have been coming to be implemented at the level of the Fiscal Administration, resulting from the practice and the proceedings adopted by the Direcção-Geral dos Impostos (DGCI), in the context of the implementation of policies outlined at a government level and whose objectives are in line with the pretended lessening of accomplishment and administration costs. Consequently, the matter in equation is the so-called costs of context considering the assumed objectives at the level of the pretended improvement of the quality in the service to the taxpayer by the DGCI and the reinforcement of the fiscal competitiveness, seeming also interesting to analise the risk associated to the implementation of the above-mentioned measures, in the point of view of the administered subject as of the Administration itself, and in the underlying notion in the tax auditing area and the resultant costs.