Lisbon, Nov. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The Deputy Minister for State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, said on Monday that administrative and tax justice is "a national disgrace", considering that Portugal has the "slowest decision times in Europe".

"Administrative and tax justice (...) is today a national disgrace; we have decision times that are the slowest in the whole of Europe, and this is unacceptable," said the minister.

The minister was speaking at a joint hearing in the parliamentary committees on State Reform and Local Government and on Budget, Finance and Public Administration, as part of the specialised assessment of the draft State Budget for 2026.

Gonçalo Matias once again referred to the Court of Auditors, saying that it is not possible to "have a principle of trust and then not have courts that work", saying that the current model "has no parallel".

"It [the Court of Auditors] was created in the past by Professor Sousa Franco, but he himself recognised at the time that it was a model that needed to be revised. Now, almost 40 years have passed, and there has been no revision, no adaptation to modern times," he added.

The minister also reiterated that the government's proposal "is not to reduce guarantees, it's not to reduce supervision", stating that the aim is "to increase supervision, to increase guarantees" [...] at the appropriate moment, which is the moment after the decision is taken.

"That's what a court does, it supervises the legality of acts, it doesn't substitute itself for those who have to make political decisions," said Gonçalo Matias.

AJR/ADB // ADB.

Lusa