Lisbon, March 25, 2025 (Lusa) - The Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML) on Tuesday approved a motion urging the city executive to amend existing rules that waive the need for licensing for most economic ativities, so that municipal officials can regain prior control over these, in order to avoid the "de-characterisation" of the city.

The motion, which had already been approved by the executive itself and which prompted a topical debate in the AML, requested by the municipal group of mayor Carlos Moedas's centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), on Tuesday received the favourable votes of the PSD, its partner the conservative Pepole's Party (CDS-PP), the Earth Party (MPT), the People's Monarchist Party (PPM), the Socialist Party (PS), the Communist Party (PCP) and one assembly member from Citizens for Lisbon (elected on the PS/Livre coalition ticket), as well as votes against from the Left Bloc (BE) and Livre and abstentions from the Liberal Initiative (IL), Chega, Greens (PEV), People-Animals-Nature (PAN) and another member for Citizens for Lisbon.

Despite their different voting behaviour, all the forces agreed on the need for the government to change the licensing rules, citing various negative effects on the city.

Opening the debate, PSD member Luís Newton began by saying that Zero Licensing, as it is known, had been "responsible for the urban restructuring of the cohesion of the urban fabric and the quality of life of Lisbon residents."

He noted that the measure allows a nightclub to be set up in a residential neighbourhood in the city.

Speaking for the PS were the head of the Santa Maria Maior parish council, Miguel Coelho, and the head of the Misericórdia parish council, Carla Madeira, who recognised the importance of zero licensing when it first came into force, but warned of its effects on the city's historic centre.

"In 2011 it was well constituted, but it has become a weapon for vandalising public space, especially in the historic centre," he said of zero licensing. "For example, the issue of tuk-tuks and [restaurant] terraces has to do with zero licensing and is not the fault of Lisbon city council."

The head of the parish council for Misericórdia, which encompasses nightlife areas in Bairro Alto and Cais do Sodré, also stressed the need for a "balance between leisure and the right to rest" for residents.

For her part, Livre assembly member Patrícia Robalo criticised the current PSD/CDS-PP council leadership for what she said was an inability to supervise and plan the city's commercial development.

"This motion by the PSD and [the coalition] Novos Tempos is not aimed at administrative simplification, but reveals the inability of the current management to provide the municipality with the means to guarantee the municipal and systematic inspection that must be carried out after prior notification," she said. "It has been incapable and averse to implementing the planning instruments in the area of commercial urbanism that the city needs."

In a short speech, Maria Escaja of the BE justified voting against the motion on the grounds that it did not seek to "jeopardise the interests of the big and only the small.

"If we want to look at the negative externalities of a particular economic activity, in this case tourism, and find a balance, then let's start by having limits on the number of hotels and local accommodation [units] that open in the city," she said, using the official term for short-term rentals. "Starting with the smallest will not, in our opinion, solve the problems."

Rodrigo Mello Gonçalves of the IL argud for the need to take stock of the law and review the regime, "analysing what went well and what went wrong" in Lisbon.

"To have a serious, informed discussion," he stressed. "This debate can't be based on guesswork, perceptions or even the nationality of the economic agent."

For their part, both the Chega member Bruno Mascarenhas and the MPT member José Inácio Faria said that zero licensing was responsible for "de-characterising the city" and "deregulating commercial activity."

The PAN member, António Valente, took a different view, saying that the problem of the deregulation of economic activity was due to the "lack of supervision" by the local authority.

 In the same vein, the PCP, through Fernando Correia, urged the executive to take a more proactive stance in overseeing economic activities.

Representing the city executive, the executive member for economy and innovation, Diogo Moura, emphasised that the current context is "very different from 2015" when zero licensing came in, when it "helped streamline processes" at a time when Portugal needed investment.

"Today there is a great imbalance," he said. "We don't want to add more bureaucracy, but rather strike a balance between commercial establishments with an identity and new businesses. We want to give municipalities mechanisms to intervene in specific areas, such as downtown Lisbon.".

Zero Licensing is a SIMPLEX national government initiative launched in 2011 that provides for the dematerialisation of various administrative procedures related to the licensing of certain economic activities.

FAC/ARO // ARO.

Lusa