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The Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Vasco da Gama, hull number F 330, moored in port under a clear blue sky and flying the Portuguese flag

Portugal Will Pay About 25% More Than Italy for Near-Identical Frigates, and Its Own Coalition Wants the Minister to Explain

Expresso reports Portugal will pay around 25% more than Italy for near-identical Fincantieri frigates — over €1 billion a ship against Italy's €750 million. The government blames the inflation clause in the EU's SAFE defence loans; the governing coalition wants Nuno Melo to explain.

The Portugal Brief 14 Aug 2026

Traffic on the A1 motorway near Fatima in Portugal, with blue signs for Lisboa and Fatima and an 80 km/h limit sign

How the Driving Licence Points System Works in Portugal

The 12 point starting balance, the serious and very serious offences that cost points, the course and re-exam thresholds, and how to check your score.

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

The modern white facade of the University of Coimbra Polo III student residence hall under a clear blue sky

Portugal Raises the Displaced-Student Housing Grant to €161 a Month and Drops the Rental-Contract Requirement

A new scholarship regulation lifts the monthly housing top-up for displaced grant-holders from about €92 to around €161 and scraps the rental-contract requirement, so students need only show they were refused a residence place. Settled foreign-resident families can qualify.

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

Pump Prices in Portugal Don't Rise Faster Than They Fall, the Energy Regulator Concludes — and It Rejects Capping Margins

Portugal's energy regulator, ERSE, studied 186 weeks of prices and found no persistent evidence that fuel rises faster than it falls, and no grounds to cap retailers' margins. The real reason the pump hurts, it says, is tax, not profiteering.

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

A yellow INEM emergency ambulance marked 'Instituto Nacional de Emergencia Medica' and '112' parked on a cobbled Lisbon square

INEM's Pre-Hospital Technicians Call Two September Strikes Over an Ambulance Shake-Up They Brand a Dismantling

The STEPH union has called strikes for 14 and 28 September over a reorganisation that would move 54 ambulances to local health units and convert 46 life-support vehicles into cars that cannot carry patients — cutting roughly 100 ambulances from front-line response. The union calls it a dismantling o

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

A row of white wind turbines spread across dry hills at the Pampilhosa da Serra wind park in central Portugal, with a substation building on the right

The Tax Authority Reclassifies Wind and Solar Parks as Single 'Properties,' and Their Municipal Tax Bills Could Double

A Tax Authority circular signed off on 27 July now treats each wind or solar farm as a single taxable 'property' — towers, blades, panels, substations and all — rather than a set of separate parts. One wind park's taxable value could jump from €63m to €150m. The renewables body APREN is fighting it;

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

The maroon cover of a Portuguese European Union passport, gold lettering reading 'Uniao Europeia Portugal Passaporte', illustrating residence and immigration paperwork

AIMA Tells EU Nationals With Paper Residence Cards to Renew Online — and to Drop the Leading Zero

AIMA has issued fresh guidance for EU citizens and their non-EU family members who still hold paper Residence Cards, directing them to renew through the online Renewals Portal. The catch: when entering the card number, holders must ignore the leading zero — enter 11641, not 011641 — or the form will

The Portugal Brief 13 Aug 2026

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