Municipalities gain power to approve property expropriations – Portugal Resident

Portugal’s municipalities will now be able to declare property expropriations to be in the public interest without requiring approval from the government, under changes to the Expropriations Code published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday.

According to Eco, the new decree-law transfers responsibility for approving expropriations initiated by municipal councils to municipal assemblies, in what the government says is another step in the country’s decentralisation process.

Until now, declarations of public utility for municipal expropriations generally required approval from central government, except in specific circumstances such as urban development plans or projects carried out under the Economic and Social Stabilisation Programme and the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

The reform extends those existing powers, allowing municipal assemblies to approve all public interest declarations for expropriations initiated by local authorities.

According to the government, the change will bring decision-making closer to local communities, giving municipalities greater autonomy while improving scrutiny and speeding up administrative procedures.

“By transferring this competence to municipal assemblies, proximity between decision-making and local needs is promoted, granting greater autonomy, scrutiny and agility to the process,” the decree-law states.

The government argues the measure will help ensure public policies are better aligned with the specific needs of each municipality while strengthening local government.

Where an expropriation affects two or more municipalities, the declaration of public utility must be approved by each of the relevant municipal assemblies following a justified proposal from their respective municipal councils.

The reform does not affect the rights of property owners to receive compensation. The decree-law changes only which public authority is responsible for declaring an expropriation to be in the public interest; existing compensation rules remain unchanged.

The government says the measure will contribute to stronger territorial cohesion by giving local authorities greater capacity to respond to the economic and social needs of their communities.

Source: Eco