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The Portugal Brief

A bride in a long white dress on the riverside square in central Lisbon

Marriages in Portugal Rose Nine Percent in July While Births Slipped Three, and August Brought 906 Fewer Deaths Than Last Year

The statistics institute's monthly registry count puts July at 4,691 marriages and 7,566 live births, and August at 9,021 deaths. Across seven months the gap between births and deaths is narrowing, and it is the death count doing most of the work.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The interior of a Portuguese Espaço do Cidadão public service office, with staff at numbered red and white desks serving citizens and others waiting on chairs along the wall.

Two Fields Have Vanished From AIMA's Permanent-Residence Form for EU Citizens, and the Check Now Runs Itself in About Half an Hour

From 15 September, EU nationals and their family members applying for permanent residence through AIMA's renewals portal no longer supply a NIF or a NISS. The agency verifies both automatically. The fifteen-day and three-month statutory deadlines are unchanged.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

Rows of straw parasols and blue sunbeds on the wide sand of Troia beach in Portugal, with a wooden boardwalk in the foreground and the Arrabida hills across the water behind.

An Order Published on Friday Hands Portugal's Environment Agency Twelve Months to Redraw the Beach Rules From Sesimbra to Odeceixe

Despacho n.º 11520/2026 reopens the Espichel-Odeceixe coastal programme four years after it was approved, after an inspection of 45 kilometres of Grândola coast between Troia and Melides. Sixteen bodies sit on the advisory committee; the beach concessionaires attend only when invited.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The white art deco facade of the Terreiro do Paço ferry terminal in Lisbon, with three tall arched windows, a clock above the central arch and Lisbon taxis parked along the kerb in front.

Cash Is No Longer Accepted at the Terreiro do Paço Ferry Counter, and the European Rule That Would Settle It Is Still Unfinished

Transtejo Soflusa went card only at its staffed Lisbon ticket office on 14 September. An association has asked for the legal basis. Euro cash is legal tender, but what that obliges was left to a 2010 recommendation, and Portugal attaches no penalty to a refusal.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The long yellow and white facade of Portugal's Ministry of Finance on Avenida Infante D. Henrique in Lisbon, with the Portuguese and European Union flags above the marble main entrance

Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: Sarmento Prices the VAT Cuts at Two Billion Euros, Zara's Owner Discounted the REN Sale, Six Bidders Line Up for Azores Airlines

📋 In This Edition * Sarmento Puts a Two Billion Euro Price on the Opposition's VAT Cuts and Says They Would End the Surplus * Lisbon Reopens 1.33 Percent Below a Record It Set on Thursday, After a Week That Gained 0.18 Percent * Portuguese Banks Hold 102 Billion Euros

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The Port of Leixoes at Matosinhos in Portugal, with gantry cranes and a container ship at the far quay and rows of shipping containers on wagons along the near wharf

Two of Ten Containers of Portuguese Aid Have Docked at La Guaira, Carrying the First of 240 Tonnes Raised After June's Earthquakes

Seven containers sailed from Lisbon and three from Leixoes, collected by Portuguese and Luso-Venezuelan diaspora associations. Thirteen local bodies took between 10 and 15 pallets each at the first handover.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The white station building of Castelo Branco on Portugal's Beira Baixa Line, with blue tiled panels, a red tiled roof and a train standing at the platform behind

Trains Are Running Again on the Whole of the Beira Baixa Line, and the Buses That Stood In for Them Since March Are Gone

The Mouriscas-A to Vila Velha de Rodao section reopened on Sunday after 3.4 million euros of repairs to two landslides left by Storm Kristin. Regionais, Intercidades and freight run the full 240 kilometres again.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

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