PORTUGAL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Francisco Rodrigues Rocha, Gouveia Pereira & Associados – Sociedade de Advogados, SP, RL
Maritime Law in Portugal The country’s potential and its strategic position A country facing the sea, with a coastline of around 2,500 km, Portugal has the EU’s third-largest Exclu - sive Economic Zone (EEZ), covering 1,727,408 km², as well as deep-water ports and a strategic geograph - ical position at the head of Europe facing the Americas and Africa, together with preferential political relations with a significant group of Portuguese-speaking coun - tries. These factors amount to enormous potential in the sector of maritime resources and activities. The materialisation of this potential, which remains to a large extent untapped, continues to be an objective of successive governments, including the current one. To this end, efforts have been made in recent years to provide the country with a legal framework that is more conducive to investment in this sector. Measures adopted throughout 2025 are discussed below. Key legislative developments in Portuguese maritime law At the legislative level, the following developments in 2025 are worth noting. • Decree-Law No 36/2025 of 24 March, enacted pursuant to the legislative authorisation granted by Law No 21/2025 of 4 March, which amended the Legal Regime of the Professional Activity of Seafar - ers, approved by Decree-Law No 166/2019 of 31 October. This amendment sought to address the increase in applications for the recognition of pro - fessional certificates of foreign seafarers, reflecting labour shortages, particularly in the fishing sector, by creating a regime intended to be more flex - ible and expeditious. Following this legal diploma, mention should also be made of Ministerial Order No 468/2025/1 of 24 December, which establishes the types of professional certificates for seafar - ers, the conditions for their issuance, their validity, the revalidation procedure and the corresponding templates. • Law No 36/2025 of 31 March, which established a moratorium on deep-sea mining until 2050, amend - ing Law No 17/2014 of 10 April (Framework Law on the Policy for Planning and Management of the National Maritime Space) and Law No 98/2021 of 31 December (Framework Climate Law), seeking to
align Portugal with good environmental practices in the mining sector. • Law No 45-A/2024 of 31 December, which approved the State Budget for the year 2025 and enshrined two measures with a direct impact on the maritime sector. (a) On the one hand, Article 154 provided that, throughout 2025, the government was to take the necessary steps to launch an international public tender for the establishment of a regular maritime connection, by ferry, for the transport of passengers and roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) cargo between the Autonomous Region of Madeira and mainland Portugal. This provision not only reinforced the importance of maritime territorial continuity, but also bound the government to define the corresponding public service com - pensation and the operational and logistical conditions indispensable to the viability and stability of that service. (b) On the other hand, Article 316 required the strengthening of the technical means dedicated to the protection of submarine telecommunica - tions cables crossing the maritime space under Portuguese jurisdiction, signalling the priority attributed to the security of critical submerged infrastructure, with implications for the alloca - tion of resources, co-operation with private operators and the possible future development of the applicable regulatory framework. • Decree-Law No 100/2024 of 4 December, with full effect as from 2025, which introduced the second amendment to Decree-Law No 204/2005 of 25 November, governing the specific stability requirements applicable to RoRo passenger ships, thereby transposing Directive (EU) 2023/946. This legal instrument updated the definitions of “exist - ing ro-ro passenger ship” and “new RoRo pas - senger ship”, expressly incorporated the most recent versions of the SOLAS Convention, includ - ing SOLAS 2020, and comprehensively reconfig - ured the enhanced stability regime applicable to such vessels, whether newly built or existing ships commencing regular services to ports of member states after that date. It further strengthened the role of the Directorate-General for Natural Resourc - es, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM) in verify - ing compliance with the new requirements, in the
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