Portugal promises AI licensing portal by year-end

Portugal’s government said it plans to launch “Licencia”, a single AI-based portal for construction, environmental and industrial permits, by the end of this year, in a move aimed at cutting municipal licensing times to days or weeks.

Speaking at the opening of the Portugal Smart Cities Summit in Lisbon, Minister for the Presidency and State Reform Gonçalo Matias said the platform would allow applicants to handle different permits in one place. “For the citizen there is only one State, there are not 308”, he said, referring to Portugal’s municipalities.

Matias said the government expects the interoperability law, linking municipal and national platforms, to help speed up procedures. He told local officials that licensing deadlines already reduced from 200 days to 50 or 70 days should fall further once the new technology is in place, saying AI and the Licencia project would make it possible to approve construction projects “in a few days or a few weeks”.

The minister also pointed to broader local government reforms, including changes to the Audit Court’s framework that removed prior approval requirements for contracts of up to €10 million, and the elimination of three million documents he described as redundant or already held by the state. He said the changes were meant to give local authorities more room to decide without unnecessary administrative burdens.

Originally published at Eco.pt