Clear discrimination against Spanish citizens, JUST for the reason that they are not Portuguese citizens.
“Ticket hunting” for cars with Spanish license plates. Crossing the border to work in Portugal can be a nightmare for Spanish doctors working in Portuguese hospitals.
“We have the feeling that we are criminals just for working in Portugal and having a Spanish registration plate. When they stop us, they don’t even care if we have a driver’s license. They just want the guide”
I don’t know why these Spanish doctors still bother to help miserable Portugal. This is the payment they get from the Portuguese people for their generosity. The Portuguese do not even respect the rights enshrined in European citizenship.
The following article is a translation (mostly MT). You can find the link to the original website at the end of it.
Professionals working in national health units say the authorities’ “hunt for fines” “continues”
Despite assurances in 2008 from Prime Minister José Sócrates, Spanish doctors in Portugal say that the “hunt for a fine” by national authorities “continues”.
When they stop us, they don’t even care if we have a driving license. They just want the guide”, Xoán Gómez, president of the Association of Car Professionals, told DN. Spanish Health in Portugal (APSEP). At issue is the fact that Spaniards who work in Portugal complain that they continue to be fined when they are caught on national roads driving their vehicles, with Spanish registration plates, without carrying the respective “safe-conduct”.
These documents are nothing more than a license to drive a Spanish vehicle in Portugal. However, the General Command of the GNR explained that the application of fines results, “solely, from the application of the Law”. This takes into account that the law requires drivers to carry a cross-border worker declaration, issued by Customs. The Spanish doctors, who say they are the “main targets” of the Republican National Guard, despite “the promises of the Portuguese Prime Minister and recent changes to the law”, claim that they continue to be prevented from “not being able to move freely in Portugal”.
“Would it be permissible, in a Europe that claims to have no borders, to demand safe conduct from anyone who uses their vehicle to work in another country”, asked the Galician doctor, who travels daily between Galicia and Ponte de Lima, on a 40 kilometer journey.
between residence and the place where he practices medicine in the local unit.
says the Spanish doctor. It is recalled that precisely two years ago, at the XXIII Iberian Summit, which took place in Braga, the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, said that “there is no reason” to fine Spaniards who reside in Spain and work in Portugal and who use their vehicles with Spanish registration plates to travel to their place of work.
José Sócrates recognized that the Vehicle Tax Code was not “up to the standards of relations between the two countries” and announced that some changes would be immediately approved, so that Spaniards who reside in Spain could use their vehicles, with Spanish registration plates, not needing to travel around Portugal with another vehicle.