Afternoon Briefing — Wednesday, 15 April 2026
In today's briefing: • Government Strips Audit Court of Pre-Approval Power Over 90% of Public Contracts • Porto Airport Adds 21 New Routes for Summer Including Delta's First New York Service • New Construction Code Takes Effect 1 June — One Law to Replace Over 100 Scattered Regulations
Government Strips Audit Court of Pre-Approval Power Over 90% of Public Contracts
Portugal's Council of Ministers approved the most sweeping reform of the Tribunal de Contas in decades, eliminating the mandatory prior approval — the visto prévio — for all public contracts valued below EUR 10 million. The government says the change will exempt more than 90 per cent of public contracts from prior judicial oversight and bring Portugal in line with EU standard practice. State Reform Minister Gonçalo Matias said Portugal was "an isolated case in Europe" in maintaining such extensive preventive auditing. But TdC President Filipa Urbano Calvão warned the reform could "weaken the state and its external credibility," particularly for high-value public-private partnerships. The proposal now goes to parliament for debate.
Porto Airport Adds 21 New Routes for Summer Including Delta's First New York Service
Porto's Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport will launch 21 new routes this summer, six of them intercontinental, after handling a record 16.9 million passengers in 2025. The marquee addition is Delta Air Lines' new JFK–Porto service launching in May — the first time Delta has operated a scheduled route to northern Portugal. Turkish Airlines will increase Istanbul flights to 17 per week, easyJet is opening three Cape Verde routes, and Ryanair is adding Rabat. ANA has completed a EUR 50 million runway modernisation and is upgrading the terminal to handle projected growth.
New Construction Code Takes Effect 1 June — One Law to Replace Over 100 Scattered Regulations
Portugal's new Construction Code enters into force on 1 June, consolidating more than 100 separate laws and regulations — some dating back to the 1960s — into a single framework. The code introduces mandatory digital permit submissions through the PEPU platform, automatic approval deadlines if municipalities fail to respond (120 days for projects under 300 square metres), and performance-based building standards replacing outdated prescriptive rules. The reform is central to the government's strategy for tackling the housing crisis by making construction faster, cheaper, and less bureaucratic.
