Lisbon, July 13, 2026 (Lusa) - The Minister for Culture explained on Monday that it will be necessary to review the free admission scheme for museums “following an exchange of correspondence with the European Commission”, which has launched infringement proceedings against Portugal on grounds of discrimination.
“I have accepted that we will have to revisit the issue of free admission, because we are engaged in an exchange of correspondence with the European Commission – which began long before I became minister – regarding one of the measures and the possible discrimination against citizens of a particular member state [compared to another],” said the Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, to journalists in Lisbon, on the sidelines of a public debate on the revision of the Statute of Cultural Professionals (EPAC).
The minister emphasised: “Following this exchange of correspondence, we will have to revisit the issue of free admission.”
Margarida Balseiro Lopes acknowledged, in an interview published today by the online newspaper Eco, that she intends to review the current system of free admission to museums, “not least because people need to value culture”.
Free entry to museums, monuments and palaces under the Portuguese State jurisdiction became possible for 52 days a year for Portuguese nationals and residents in Portugal, on any day of the week, from August 2024. Until then, and since September 2023, free entry had been restricted to Sundays and public holidays.
The minister also said that a possible review of this scheme “relates to the sustainability of museum funding”.
“We have Museus e Monumentos de Portugal [MMP] working to ensure the sustainability of these facilities, by ensuring they have associated shops so that we can diversify our sources of funding. It is estimated that this year we will see an increase of almost 30% in this type of revenue, in addition to the hire of rooms at many of these facilities,” she said.
In December 2024, the European Commission demanded that Portugal remove the “discriminatory rules” which allow residents of the country, but not visitors from other European Union countries, free entry to museums, monuments and palaces 52 days a year, thereby initiating infringement proceedings.
In the European Commission’s view, “these rules discriminate against visitors residing in other member states” and contravene a directive on services in the internal market.
Brussels also justifies the infringement proceedings against Portugal on the grounds of non-compliance with “Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [EU], which guarantees that recipients of services may access those services in other member states under the same conditions as nationals”.
“The Court of Justice of the European Union established as early as 1994 that visiting museums in another member state is covered by EU rules on the free movement of services. The Court also emphasised the right of tourists from other member states, as recipients of services, to enjoy these museum services on the same terms as nationals”, the institution argued at the time.
The Ministry of Culture, then headed by Dalila Rodrigues, told the Lusa news agency that it would maintain free admission to museums, monuments and palaces, and that it would respond “within the deadlines” to the proceedings brought by Brussels.
According to the MMP, in 2025, the “Acesso 52” scheme accounted for a total of 892,637 free visits by residents in Portugal to museums and monuments managed by the public enterprise, representing 18% of the total of 4,843,299 admissions.
Introduced on 1 August 2024, the “Acesso 52” scheme recorded 450,275 visitors that year across the 38 cultural venues overseen by the MMP.
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