Diesel railcars retire on 19 July as the Algarve Line goes fully electric, bringing about 40% more seats, 18% more services and the first direct Lagos–Vila Real trains.
A new EU regulation forces Portugal to make foreign-investment screening mandatory in sensitive sectors by 2028 — and the government has yet to decide who will run it.
Portugal's municipalities ran a combined surplus of about €492 million in 2025, up 84%, on the back of a 24% jump in property-transfer tax and a near-doubling of tourist-tax revenue. But council debt rose for a second straight year, and seven town halls breached their legal limit.
A new OECD study finds up to a third of Portugal's private-sector workers are bound by non-compete clauses — often without realising it — and argues the practice is quietly holding down wages and job mobility. Many of the clauses may not even be valid under Portuguese law.
Portugal's full-pension age rises to 66 years and 11 months in 2027, indexed automatically to life expectancy. Now an INE revision that found more residents than thought will force a recalculation of the mortality tables, and could move the retirement age again.
After €43 billion of post-pandemic home-renovation spending through the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the European Court of Auditors says the EU still cannot prove the money saved much energy. Portugal drew on the same fund for its own €240 million building-efficiency drive.
