General Daily Briefing: Tuesday, 29 September 2026
Good morning. Here is your Tuesday briefing for 29 September 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, with two new practical guides at the top.
- Accident: two foreign workers were killed when a trench collapsed at a Pestana hotel site in Porto Covo.
- Innovation: invention filings in Portugal rose 43 percent in the first eight months of the year.
- Tax: the tax office rules that a subsidiary's old profits cannot enlarge a company's ICE capitalisation deduction.
- Europe: President Seguro is in Strasbourg to mark 50 years of Portugal in the Council of Europe.
- North: the Alto Minho's ten mayors ask for 300 million euros of roads, including a new bridge to Galicia.
- Diaspora: teachers of Portuguese abroad get their first pay rise since 2009, about 20 percent by 2029.
Complaining about an Insurer or Insurance Agent in Portugal
What to do when an insurer refuses or delays a claim: the 20-day deadline for a reply, the customer ombudsman, a complaint to the supervisor, the ASF, and arbitration for disputes up to 5,000 euros.
Getting an Abortion in Portugal
How to end a pregnancy in Portugal: the 10-week limit, how to book the first appointment, the three-day wait, what it costs, what to do if a doctor refuses, and your rights as an immigrant.
Also Published Since Yesterday's Briefing
- Iberian Orcas Were Already Pushing Boats off the Algarve in 2018, Two Years Before the First Reports, Researchers Say
- Six Months Without Ryanair: Azores Airports Count 103,766 Fewer Arrivals, and Lodgings 71,600 Fewer Nights
- Portugal's Gambling Regulator Hands the Hunt for Illegal Betting Sites to Software, Under a 19,990 Euro Contract
- Four Charged in Portugal's Twins Case: Prosecutors Accuse the Former President's Son and Two Ex-Officials of Malfeasance, and the Mother of Fraud Over Wheelchairs
- No Juice, Ham or Fruit Pouches: Portugal's Health Authority Publishes Its First Guidance on What Creches Should Feed Children Under Three
- The Cascais Line Goes First as a Finance Ministry Team Starts Preparing a Private Operator for CP's Trains, With Sintra Only 'Subject to Confirmation'
- Nearly One in Six Adults in Portugal Drink Every Day, Three Times the EU Rate and the Highest in the Union
- Constitutional Court Rejects the Civil Code Rule That Voids Gifts to a Married Person's Lover, in a Case From Gaia
- Portugal's Rules for Building Lifts and Escalators Are Up for Review After 24 Years, With a Draft Due Within 90 Days
- Banks Sell Nearly Three in Four Life Policies in Portugal, and Some Loan Cover Paid Commissions Worth Over Half the Premium, the Insurance Supervisor Finds
- The EU Signs Off New Benefit Rules for People Who Move: Six Months to Take Unemployment Pay Abroad, and Tighter Terms for Posted Workers
- Abortions in Portugal Hold Steady at 18,869 in 2025, With One Lisbon Clinic Doing a Third of Those on Request and 44 Percent for Foreign Women
- No State Subsidy for Two Cholesterol Pills After Their Maker Balks at Infarmed's Price, While a New Ovarian Cancer Drug Wins SNS Funding
Two Workers Killed in Porto Covo
Two construction workers, foreign nationals aged 26 and 28, died on Monday afternoon when the side of a trench gave way at the Pestana Porto Covo Beach Residences site in the municipality of Sines, burying them five to six metres down. The alarm was raised at 16:29; the first body was recovered at 18:15 and the second at 23:15. The mayor of Sines blamed a landslide. The Working Conditions Authority, the ACT, is investigating, and a Pestana company said the men worked for a contractor on the group's land.
Invention Filings Up 43 Percent
Portugal's industrial property institute, the INPI, received 973 national invention applications from January to August, against 679 a year earlier, according to provisional figures reported by ECO. Trademark filings rose 9.6 percent to 16,826, and applications for EU trademarks from Portugal grew about 14 percent. Grants of invention rights fell to 108, and national design applications dropped 38 percent, although Portuguese design filings at EU level rose.
No Double Count for Old Dividends
A binding ruling from the Tax and Customs Authority says a parent company cannot count dividends from a subsidiary towards the ICE, the IRC deduction for strengthening equity, if it had already booked those profits under the equity method in earlier years. Moving the cash into retained earnings is "merely a transfer between equity headings", the AT concluded. The exception: profits whose distribution the subsidiary approved before the parent closed its accounts. The deduction applies 12-month Euribor plus two points to eligible equity increases, capped at four million euros or 30 percent of EBITDA.
Seguro in Strasbourg
President António José Seguro spends Tuesday and Wednesday at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, marking 50 years since Portugal joined and signed the European Convention on Human Rights on 22 September 1976. He meets Portuguese staff and parliamentarians on Tuesday evening, addresses the Parliamentary Assembly at noon on Wednesday, and then visits the European Court of Human Rights, which hears complaints from anyone in a member state, foreign residents included.
Alto Minho Asks for 300 Million Euros of Roads
The ten mayors of the Alto Minho want 300 million euros for roads, and their spokesman, Monção's mayor António Barbosa, says the Infrastructure Minister promised a Council of Ministers resolution this year. About half of the road traffic between Portugal and Spain crosses in the region, he said. The one-page list starts with a Valença, Monção and Melgaço bypass to Galicia and an extension of the A28, and asks for studies on a new Minho bridge between Caminha and A Guarda.
A Pay Rise for Teachers of Portuguese Abroad
The Foreign Ministry and the unions have agreed a new legal regime for Portuguese Teaching Abroad, the network that teaches the language to emigrants' children and at foreign universities. It brings rises of about 20 percent between 2027 and 2029 and the first revision of the pay scales since 2009, at an extra cost of about 8.6 million euros. The FNE union had called earlier offers "very far short", with rises as small as eight euros for teachers in France.
