General Daily Briefing: Thursday, 5 November 2026
Filing a Consumer Complaint in Portugal (Livro de Reclamações)
How the official complaints book works, and how to use it when a business lets you down.
Good morning. Here is your Thursday briefing for 5 November 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, below this week's featured guide.
- EDP: chief executive Miguel Stilwell de Andrade will step down at the 2027 shareholders' meeting, and the energy group has begun searching for a successor.
- Energy bills: 68 percent of people in Portugal say dearer energy has cut their purchasing power, the seventh-highest share in the EU in a European Investment Bank survey.
- Digital euro scam: the ECB warns that fake letters in its name invite people to invest in a digital euro pilot; the currency does not exist yet and cannot be bought.
- University fees: universities would have to put 15 percent of tuition income into student support when the fee freeze ends, under the 2027 budget.
- Legal aid: the justice minister says she has signed an order letting court-appointed lawyers be paid in instalments during long cases.
- Health care: almost three in ten adults did not get care in reasonable time over the past year, a survey for the Ordem dos Médicos finds.
EDP Looks for a New Chief Executive
Miguel Stilwell de Andrade, EDP's chief executive for the last six years and at the company for 25 years, will not seek another term and leaves at the 2027 shareholders' meeting. EDP's supervisory board will run a search open to internal and external candidates. Nothing changes for customers now; regulated tariffs remain ERSE's decision.
Energy Prices and Household Budgets
The European Investment Bank's 2026 Climate Survey finds 68 percent of people in Portugal say higher gas, fuel and electricity prices significantly cut their purchasing power this year, against 60 percent across the EU. Fewer than the EU average cut food, health or heating spending, but 38 percent expect the energy transition to lower their bills.
A Digital Euro You Cannot Buy
Fraudsters are sending fake ECB letters inviting people to put money into a digital euro pilot, promising high returns with no risk. The ECB says it offers no digital euro investments and never asks for money; the law creating the currency is still under negotiation, with a possible first issue in 2029.
Where Part of the Fee Rise Would Go
Universities and polytechnics would have to put 15 percent of their tuition income back into student social support under the 2027 budget, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre told MPs on Wednesday night. The 697-euro fee cap would rise with inflation from 2027/2028, and he promised the neediest students would not bear the increase. Parliament votes on 24 November.
Paying Legal Aid Lawyers Sooner
Court-appointed lawyers in long trials are to be paid as they go instead of waiting until the case is final, after the justice minister told parliament she had signed the order on Wednesday. She is aiming for payment an average of 30 days after courts confirm the work. The order's text is not yet in the official gazette; how residents apply for legal aid is unchanged.
Waiting Too Long for Care
A national survey for the Ordem dos Médicos, run by IHMT-NOVA with 700 adults in late 2025, finds 29.9 percent did not get care in a reasonable time in the past year because of booking problems or waiting lists. Almost half of respondents fall into a "vulnerable" group: older, sicker and the least likely to have regular follow-up.
Also published since yesterday's briefing
- A Residence Refusal From AIMA Now Comes With an Order to Leave Portugal Within 20 to 30 Days, and Lawyers Say the First Cases Have Arrived Read →
- Judicial Police Declines to Renew Its Finance Director, Who Suggested Keeping a Seized Trailer at the Builder That Worked on the Interior Minister's Home Read →
- Portugal's Construction Firms Reach 43.5 Billion Euros in Turnover, and 38 Percent of Their Workers Were Born Abroad, Banco de Portugal Finds Read →
- Banco Montepio Staff and Retirees Secure a 3 Percent Rise, and the 30 November Strike There Is Called Off, Leaving Millennium bcp Without an Announced Deal Read →
- Portugal's Councils Want a One-Year Pause on the Rule That Makes Their Bills Overdue After 30 Days Instead of 90 Read →
- Portugal's State Pension Covers the Average Worker but Leaves Low Earners and the Self-Employed Short, and Its Savers Rank Third for Early Withdrawals, an OECD Report Shows Read →
- Wine Stocks in Portuguese Cellars Shrink 5 Percent to 11.6 Million Hectolitres for a Second Year, as the IVV Forecasts a 12 Percent Bigger Harvest Read →
- Gaia and Espinho's Lung Cancer Screening Picked Up 12 Cancers in 1,083 Current and Former Smokers, and a Three-Year Trial Now Tests a Blood Check Before the Scan Read →
- AIMA Adds a Permanent Residence Appointment Request to Its Online Form: Two Documents to Upload and Six Conditions to Meet Read →
- Porto's Metro Gets a Study to Run South Along the Vouga Line to Feira, São João da Madeira and Oliveira de Azeméis, and the Old Salgueiros Ground Is Earmarked for Housing Read →
- Maths Will Be Compulsory to Year 12 on Every Secondary Course From 2028/29, With the New Curriculum Out for Consultation in December Read →
- Iberdrola Pays 107,200 Euros to ERSE After Switching Customers Without Consent and Running Short of Gas Reserves, and Wronged Clients Get 50 Euros Each Read →
