As you already know, CEPLIS has since December a new observer member. The National Association of Liberal Professionals (ANPL) is a major stakeholder for the defense and promotion of liberal professionals, freelancers and consultants in Portugal.
ANPL is an NGO founded in 2021 and publicly presented, on a symbolic note, on May 1. Its Board of Directors and other social entities are all volunteer liberal professionals. Since then, they have published several informative and opinion articles pointing out the realities experienced by liberal professionals in the country.
Likewise, APNL has maintained contact with different civil and political institutions, such as the Government, Ministries and Secretaries of State, and parties represented in the Portuguese Parliament. Their aim is to focus on the need for the recognition of a clear status for the liberal professions in the country in order to put an end to the current blockage of the economic and social growth of these professions and professionals.
As a way to achieve these objectives, the ANPL considers that it is essential to follow and monitor the activities of EU institutions and their legislative processes. Thus, they have expressed their pride in the recent accession as an observer member of CEPLIS:
“We intend, not only to “observe”, but to participate actively and constructively to promote CEPLIS in Portugal and share our reality with our European colleagues, seeing this participation as a great opportunity to increase digital, personal and communication networks for liberal professionals”.
– Orlando Monteiro da Silva, President of APNL
APNL emphasizes the importance of collective intelligence by empowering civil society institutions, sharing values, governance approaches, and good practices, especially in terms of innovation, efficiency, sustainability, quality, and digitalization, reaching common interests and goals.
For ANPL, it is therefore essential to implement the Statute of the Liberal Professional, so that a European and national legislative regulatory framework can be consolidated around it, allowing the integration, valorization and framing of these professionals.
Once such a framework of basic requirements has been created, it will be possible to accommodate not only those who practice the traditional liberal professions, but also a set of other professionals who have been asserting the relevance of their activities in the economy and in various sectors and areas of knowledge, consultants, freelancers, and digital nomads.
For CEPLIS it is a great pleasure to welcome ANPL among our members and we look forward to an ever-closer collaboration.
If you want to learn more about ANPL, we invite you to visit their webpage here.
Orlando Monteiro da Silva, President of APNL