Portugal's Volunteer Fire Brigades Press for a Funding Contract, Calling a Promised 5 Percent Rise on 37 Million Euros Too Uncertain

The Liga dos Bombeiros Portugueses (LBP), which represents volunteer fire brigades, has asked the government to set up a funding "contrato-programa" for the humanitarian associations that run them "very quickly", arguing that the present model is "uncertain". The league's president, António Nunes, made the demand on Saturday 24 October at the end of an extraordinary meeting of the league's National Council in Celorico de Basto, in the district of Braga, Lusa reported via Notícias ao Minuto.

"Our main concern has to do with the budget question," Nunes said. With the 2027 State Budget under discussion, he said, the meeting centred on the "chronic underfunding" of the volunteer associations, a problem he said has dragged on for more than a decade.

A budget line that started flat

The 2027 budget proposal the government delivered to parliament on 8 October authorises the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) to transfer 37,084,944 euros to the humanitarian fire brigade associations next year, exactly the amount transferred this year, according to Lusa.

The league criticised that figure. On 22 October, at the ANEPC headquarters in Carnaxide where the results of this year's wildfire season were presented, the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, said the brigades' funding would rise by more than 5 percent in 2027, an increase "in percentage equal to or greater than last year's". This year's funding was 2.2 million euros higher than in 2025. On the 37.08 million euro base, a 5 percent rise is worth about 1.85 million euros.

Nunes welcomed the increase but said the problem is the uncertainty. "There is permanently uncertainty in the support the State gives," he said, "whether it is only the State Budget or one-off support, which most of the time is promised and then not delivered in the expected time." Earlier this month, fire brigades were still waiting on the first round of fuel aid as the second was signed.

How brigades are paid now

Permanent State funding for the associations is set by Lei n.º 94/2015. Each year a reference budget is approved in the State Budget law and shared out by formula, weighing each brigade's area, the population it covers, a wildfire risk index, the number of emergency call-outs over the last three years and its number of eligible firefighters.

Nunes said the league wants this model, which he called "uncertain and dependent on the activity" of each brigade, replaced by a programme contract. He said such a contract is in the government's programme and has been requested from the Ministry of Internal Administration several times.

What happens next

The National Council also discussed three drafts the ministry is working on: a career for firefighters employed by the associations under a work contract, insurance, and the classification ("tipificação") of fire brigades. Nunes said the career and classification rules feed into the design of a contract, and called on the government to put the drafts out for public consultation by the end of the year.

The funding figure itself will be settled in the budget debate in parliament. The demand comes in a difficult week for the sector, after attackers copied firefighters' personal data from their national register. The brigades' work also extends well beyond fires: as of 1 October every fire brigade also has an INEM emergency ambulance.