The Environmental Implementation Review 2019 – Country report Portugal (EC)

The European Commission published on 5 April 2019 the second Environment Implementation Review (EIR), an overview of how EU environmental policies and laws are applied on the ground.

The 2nd EIR package consist of:

  • A Communication with policy findings and an annex with the priority actions for the EU Member States, clustered by theme
  • A Policy background document introducing all themes covered by the EIR
  • 28 country reports. In this piece, we discuss the thematic report for Portugal.

Thematic Report for Portugal:

The report begins by examining different thematic areas, such as waste management, climate change, natural capital, health and quality of citizens life, which includes air quality, industrial emissions, water quality, chemicals etc.

The second part of the report evaluates the enabling framework and the implementation tools such as green taxation, green public procurement, environmental funding and investment. The report finishes with recommendations for Portugal to strengthen environmental governance.

The 2019 Environmental Implementation Report (EIR) of Portugal highlights that the country has made substantial progress on the transition to a circular economy. Portugal has approved the National Action Plan for the Circular Economy (2017-2020), adopted by the Portuguese Government in December 2017. However, the European Commission’s ‘Early Warning Report’ (2018) states that Portugal is considered at risk of failing to meet the EU target of recycling 50% of its municipal waste by 2020. Further efforts to improve waste management are therefore needed. Progress has been made with regards to nature and marine conservation, nevertheless further efforts are needed. Some progress has been made with water management and sustainable development can be further mainstreamed into other policy areas.

Access the full country report through this link.

To access the other 2019 country reports refer to the following link.