Contract between Lisbon and the Websummit
Six months ago, Lisbon City Council announced its wish to keep the Web Summit in the Portuguese capital until 2028. It will soon vote on the agreement it has signed with the Web Summit but the document is surrounded by secrets since it will not be distributed and councillors who want to see it will have to consult it in person: it is forbidden to make photocopies or photographs.
The document was supposed to be discussed at the private meeting of the municipal council next Friday, but Fernando Medina agreed to discuss it so that the councillors would have enough time to analyze it. At Wednesday’s public meeting, João Gonçalves Pereira, a CDS councillor, invoked the legal complexity of the case to request its postponement.
Contrary to what happens with most of the proposals voted in the municipality, this agreement is only accessible to elected officials through consultation in an office of the municipality, and its reproduction is not possible. The municipal executive justifies these measures by the existence of confidentiality clauses in the contract, which would have been requested by Paddy Cosgrave’s company, which has so far made no comment.
Web Summit in Lisbon until 2028
Last year, Portugal guaranteed the permanence of the Web Summit in Lisbon until 2028, a commitment that involves the government and the municipality of the capital. As a public counterpart, the agreement provides for the payment to the organisation of around €11 million per year, as well as the extension of the FIL, the space where part of the Web Summit takes place.
João Pedro Costa, advisor to the PSD, announced that he refused to vote on the agreement. “I am not taking part in any vote for which I cannot keep a copy of what I am voting for,” said the elected representative. On Wednesday the Social Democrat went to the town hall to see the contract where he was prevented from being photographed. Usually, proposals discussed in closed sessions are sent by email to all councillors a few days in advance. The municipality never makes the proposals available to journalists in advance and publishes very few of them on its official website. In fact, it has not done so for nearly a year, since May 2018.
In recent months, the Portuguese newspaper Publico has repeatedly asked to consult the contract between the Lisbon City Council and the Web Summit, but so far without success. The newspaper has also asked the Ministry of Economy, which oversees the process, for access to the contracts with the organising company, Irish Connected Intelligence Limited. The Ministry replied: “The agreement to which it refers, although already signed, is awaiting certain formalities, which is why we cannot, for the moment, make it available for consultation”. Contacted again on Wednesday, the ministry said that the “formalities are not yet fully finalised” and that only after this process has been completed will the ministry be able to make it available.
