Latest news and stories about public administration in infrastructure in Portugal for expats and residents.
Paulo Carmona has been elected as the president of the Executive Board of Directors for Infraestruturas de Portugal for the 2026-2028 term following approval from the Recruitment and Selection Commission for Public Administration.
Pedro Dominguinhos, head of the PRR evaluation commission, warns that staff shortages and payment delays at the Climate Agency are hindering the implementation of projects funded by the Environmental Fund.
This Tuesday's agenda is marked by the presentation of the proposal for the reform of Public Administration fees and the vote in Parliament on amendments to the TVDE law. In the markets, the US banking earnings season begins and US inflation data is released, while Eurostat publishes new indicators on...
Regionalisation has returned to the centre of political debate. The Porto district branch of the PSD, led by Pedro Duarte, wants to bring the topic to the party congress, advocating for a proposal of 'regionalisation adapted to the Portuguese reality'. It is a discussion that deserves serious consideration. Almost three decades have passed since the 1998 referendum, which rejected the creation of administrative regions, albeit without binding effects due to high abstention. The country has changed, as have the challenges, and the territorial issue cannot remain on standby. It is worth starting with the potential advantages. Portugal is one of the few European countries that does not have an intermediate structure between municipalities and the central government, with the exception of the autonomous executives of the Azores and Madeira. In these archipelagos, the assessment of the existence of regional governments is, by consensus, positive. In a country with more than 300 municipalities, some with fewer than five thousand inhabitants, the coordination of public policies becomes difficult. And the Public Administration today lacks the human capacity to act throughout the territory with the proximity that many problems require. The creation of regional governments would allow for faster responses in disaster situations, such as the storms that marked the beginning of the year. It would also allow, thanks to closer knowledge of local reality, for solving population problems more quickly, using European funds more efficiently, combating desertification, strengthening the State's presence in areas where it is currently insufficient, and reorganising forest areas to reduce fire risk. Furthermore, at a time when the housing crisis forces a rethink of how we structure the country, regionalisation could be a tool to develop medium-sized cities and relieve demographic pressure on the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas. Finally, the creation of administrative regions would bring democratic legitimacy to the regional structures that already exist today and are led by officials appointed by the central government. On the side of the disadvantages, it is important to recognise real risks. A poorly designed regionalisation could increase bureaucracy and multiply public positions, with the inherent costs. This concern, which has been repeated by critics of regionalisation, is entirely legitimate. Regionalisation cannot be created based on party logic and 'jobs for the boys'. Beyond the arguments for and against, there are two structural factors that cannot be ignored. The first is that the old centralist model no longer meets the country's needs, namely the need to maintain social and territorial cohesion. Decentralisation remains necessary, whether in the form of the current coordination commissions or with administrative regions. The second is that new technologies are transforming the way we live and work, reducing the relevance of geographical barriers and opening up opportunities to reinvent the country that did not exist before. For example, in a few years, the very existence of a capital, in the current mould and the centralist logic inherited from the Enlightenment, may need to be rethought. This is a discussion about the country we want to have in the future. It must be conducted seriously and without prejudice.
Carlos Moedas' proposal will be discussed at a council meeting next week
The increase applies until the end of September next year. Furthermore, the Minister of Infrastructure asks that his successor does not reverse current housing measures due to ideological prejudice.
The number of management positions at the Social Security Institute falls to 816.
The 24-hour stoppage covers the entire public administration, with Fesinap pointing to delays in performance evaluations, a lack of hiring, and the creation of the educational support technician career as the central reasons for the protest.
The Directorate-General for Local Authorities (DGAL) has published on its official website the provisional results of the indirect elections for the presidents and vice-presidents of the five Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDRs) that took place on Monday. More than 10,700 local councillors from 278 municipalities, who make up the electoral colleges, went to the polls to choose among six ...
As we near 2025, we witnessed, at the start of the century, subtle reforms of public administration, among them the creation of Simplex in 2007 (at the time when, for example, Citius was created), which resonated in the Plan for the Reduction and Improvement of Central Administration (2011–2013). Since then, successive governments have ...
