The Council of Government, which met yesterday in Velas, São Jorge, approved the start of the process to classify São Jorge cheese as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
According to the statement issued by the Government Council, the protocol signed between the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Food, the Regional Secretariat for Education, Culture and Sport, the municipalities of Velas and Calheta, and the São Jorge Cheese Brotherhood was ratified. The protocol aims to inscribe the “traditional knowledge and techniques of making” the product as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Also approved was a resolution to transfer a maximum amount of 5.2 million euros to the Institute for Financing Agriculture and Fisheries – IFAP, for payment of the “Cattle slaughter premium for the 2nd semester”, under the “Animal production premium” measure of the POSEI-Azores sub-program.
The Azorean executive states that “the allocation of this support is intended to meet the commitments made by the Government of the Azores to Azorean farmers”.
“In line with the XIV Government’s Program, the Resolution now approved aims to achieve a sustained increase in farmers’ incomes, progressive local food autonomy in certain sectors, especially on the smaller islands which are more prone to bad weather that could jeopardize their supply, and an end to apportionments under the aforementioned POSEI2 Program,” the statement said.
There is also a transfer to IFAP of a maximum amount of 1.3 million for the payment of aid for maintaining Vineyards for the Production of Wines with Designation of Origin and Wines with Geographical Indication under the POSEI Program from Portugal to the Region.

According to the regional government, the aim is to “meet the commitments made to continue promoting a sustained increase in farmers’ incomes, as well as fulfilling the commitment to end apportionments, as provided for in the Program of the XIV Government of the Azores”.
There are also resolutions authorizing the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Food to grant extraordinary financial support for purchasing fibrous concentrate to feed the region’s livestock and “straw, pressed hay and lucerne to diversify the diet of the region’s livestock”.
In another area, a proposal for a Regional Legislative Decree creates the Recruitment and Selection Commission for the Regional Public Administration. It adapts the Statute for Managerial Personnel of Central, Regional, and Local State Administration Services and Bodies to the Region.
The aim, the government assures us, is to create a “new way of recruiting middle managers, maintaining the tendering procedure as the form of recruitment, but establishing, for these situations, that it will be carried out by a Recruitment and Selection Commission for the Regional Public Administration, in a model similar to the commission that exists at national level for the recruitment of senior managers”.
Health approved the regional regulatory decree creating a central purchasing body. With this center, the regional health directorate can “conclude public procurement contracts to establish conditions for the supply of goods and services specific to the health sector, as well as award tenders at the request of, and on behalf of, purchasing entities in the leasing or acquisition of goods or services intended for them,” says the statement from the Council of Government.
The amount of the financial contribution awarded to SATA – Air Açores for the 2024 operation of the Interjovem Card will also be increased. “The increase is due to the success of the measure and the strong support of young Azoreans,” explains the Regional Government.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.