Brussels, July 10, 2026 - The Council of the European Union (EU) on Friday recommended that Portugal prioritise affordable housing and improve access to healthcare, whilst ensuring that net expenditure remains within the limits already set.
In a recommendation published today as part of the 2026 European Semester, EU ministers of finance, meeting in Brussels, recommend that the government invest in access to healthcare, in particular by addressing the shortage of healthcare professionals.
Lisbon must also address “the affordability and availability of housing, in particular by creating incentives for a more efficient use of the housing stock, including through a recalibration of the tax structure”.
In this area, it is also recommended that the supply of housing be expanded, including affordable and social housing, and that “coordination and governance of housing policy be strengthened, alongside integrated planning at the urban, spatial planning and transport levels”.
Furthermore, Lisbon must take measures to ensure the medium-term fiscal sustainability of the pension system and promote supplementary pension schemes, as well as improve the efficiency of the tax system, notably by streamlining tax benefits; it must also improve access to risk capital and private funds, whilst continuing to focus on increasing financial literacy, and support investment in research and innovation.
In the Council’s view, the continuity of the reforms and investments established under the Recovery and Resilience Facility must also be ensured, and efforts to implement cohesion policy programmes must be accelerated; these may be reallocated to strategic priorities and within the flexibilities agreed as part of the mid-term review of the cohesion policy framework.
The ministers also state that the decarbonisation of transport systems must continue, alongside strengthening the electricity distribution system and improvements to water management.
Furthermore, the Council, following the guidelines already set out by the European Commission, wishes Portugal to ensure that the measures taken to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices are “temporary, targeted at protecting vulnerable households and meeting the needs of energy-intensive businesses, preserve incentives for energy saving, and that their budgetary cost is compatible with the commitments made under the EU budgetary framework”.
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