General Daily Briefing — Monday, 18 May 2026
The latest Portugal news, analysis, and what it means for expats and residents.
Apostille and Consular Legalisation in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to the Hague Convention Service Run by the Procuradoria-Geral da República, the €10.20 Tariff and the Non-Hague Consular Chain
Apostille and consular legalisation in Portugal — the Hague Convention service the Procuradoria-Geral da República runs out of seven counters, the €10.20 per-act tariff, the Decreto-Lei 86/2009 framework, the documents that need prior authe…
Notaries in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to the Notário, the Cartório, the Procuração, the Apostila and the Documento Particular Autenticado That Saves Foreign Residents Time and Money
Almost every paper transaction a foreign resident signs in Portugal — buying property, granting a power of attorney, drafting a will, validating a foreign document — passes through a notário. This is the field guide to the cartório, the pro…
📋 In This Edition
- Banco de Portugal Logs 2,577 Fraud-Related Payment Complaints in 2025
- Government Reinstates Original Labour Reform Draft on Fixed-Term Contracts and Outsourcing
- European Commission Drafts 'Uma Viagem, Um Bilhete' Cross-Operator Rail Rule
- Odair Moniz Trial Enters Closing Arguments on Monday 18 May at Sintra Central Criminal Court
- Autoridade Tributária Writes Off €12 Billion of 2025 Tax Debt as Incobrável
- Nova SBE Breaks Into the Financial Times Global Top 10 for Executive Education in Customised Programmes
Banco de Portugal Logs 2,577 Fraud-Related Payment Complaints in 2025
The Banco de Portugal's annual conduct-supervision report surfaced on Sunday 17 May registers 2,577 fraud-affected payment-operation complaints across 2025, a 45% year-on-year jump driven by social-engineering attacks on SEPA transfers and contested card-not-present transactions. The supervisor has stood up an internal working group on fraud and publicly criticised the delay in national legislation against caller-ID spoofing, the technique behind the bulk of the transferência-fraudulenta complaints. The reimbursement clock under Decreto-Lei 91/2018 keeps Portuguese banks on a one-business-day refund obligation unless they can prove customer authorisation.
Government Reinstates Original Labour Reform Draft on Fixed-Term Contracts and Outsourcing
The Council of Ministers approved on Wednesday 14 May 2026 a Código do Trabalho revision that restores the original three-year fixed-term contract ceiling and the original outsourcing perimeter after nine months of Concertação Social negotiations collapsed without an Acordo. PS leader José LuÃs Carneiro signals a Generalidade vote-against unless the Government drops the traves mestras, the UGT central reads the proposta as a retrocesso, and the CGTP positioned a 3 June paralisação nacional around the file. CIP president Armindo Monteiro publicly holds the package as a reforma modesta. The Assembleia floor vote arrives inside two weeks.
European Commission Drafts 'Uma Viagem, Um Bilhete' Cross-Operator Rail Rule
The Commission's draft regulation tabled on Tuesday 13 May 2026 forces EU rail operators to publish seat and fare data in a single machine-readable feed and to build a multi-operator ticketing pipeline that lets a passenger buy a Lisboa-to-Hamburg or Faro-to-Vienna routing across CP, Renfe, SNCF, Trenitalia, ÖBB and DB in one transaction. The package also imports the air-passenger-rights architecture (Regulation 261/2004) into the rail context — single-counterparty refunds, rerouting and compensation when a connection fails across operators. The Commission's impact-assessment savings ring at €7.78 billion through 2050, with operator compliance from 2027.
Odair Moniz Trial Enters Closing Arguments on Monday 18 May at Sintra Central Criminal Court
Closing arguments in the trial of PSP agent Bruno Pinto over the 21 October 2024 fatal shooting of 43-year-old Odair Moniz at Cova Moura open today at the Tribunal Central Criminal de Sintra. The case turns on a contested faca: the Laboratório de PolÃcia CientÃfica's forensic chain could not identify the owner of the knife recovered at the scene, and Bruno Pinto remains the only witness on the trial record affirming Odair Moniz held the blade. A parallel Ministério Público appeal against the dismissal of two co-accused PSP agents remains pending at the higher courts.
Autoridade Tributária Writes Off €12 Billion of 2025 Tax Debt as Incobrável
The Conta Geral do Estado for 2025 — surfaced by Jornal de Negócios on Sunday 17 May — classifies €12 billion of the €29.5 billion AT receivables pipeline as dÃvida incobrável, the technical Portuguese tax-administration label for debt the Estado has determined it cannot recover. The 41%-of-pipeline reading marks a step-up from the €9.76 billion booked under the 2024 CGE, with roughly 57.5% of the incobrável stock tied to taxpayers with ceased VAT activity and 62% of the stack concentrated on ~21,500 grandes devedores. The Tribunal de Contas parecer on the 2025 CGE lands in November.
Nova SBE Breaks Into the Financial Times Global Top 10 for Executive Education in Customised Programmes
The Financial Times executive-education ranking published over the 17-18 May weekend places Nova School of Business and Economics at 9th globally in the customised-programmes table — the first Portuguese top-10 reading since the table's launch — alongside London Business School, IMD and INSEAD. Portugal carries six schools across the FT ranking: Iscte (31st in customised, 51st open), ISEG (48th customised, 70th open), Universidade do Porto (54th customised, 35th open), Católica Lisbon (76th customised, 26th open) and Católica Porto Business School (99th customised, 85th open — new entry). Nova SBE moved from 3rd to 2nd worldwide on the Future-use indicator and to 6th on Follow-up.
