Regulatory Applicability Assessment
A structured analysis of whether, and how, Law No. 5-A/2026 applies to your organisation's activities in Portugal, with a reasoned report and recommended action plan.
Read the technical sheet →Portugal's New Lobbying Transparency Regime — Compliance for International Organisations
Law No. 5-A/2026 of 28 January (Lei n.º 5-A/2026, de 28 de janeiro) expressly applies to national and foreign private entities and has been in force since 27 July 2026. We help multinationals, public affairs consultancies, European associations and international law firms comply with it — in English, from Lisbon and Brussels.
In force
Foreign entities included
60-day deadline
What the regime requires
Law No. 5-A/2026 is Portugal's first comprehensive regulation of lobbying, formally described as legitimate interest representation (representação legítima de interesses). It creates the Transparency Register of Interest Representation (Registo de Transparência da Representação de Interesses — RTRI), a single, public, free and open register operating with the Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da República), available in machine-readable open data (Articles 1(1) and 4(4)). Entities covered by the regime must register before being granted meetings with the public entities listed in Article 3 — prior registration is a condition for obtaining an audience (Article 8(1)).
Transparency then operates continuously. Public entities disclose, at least quarterly, the meetings held with registered representatives, and Parliament discloses its meetings monthly (Article 8(3) and 8(4)). At the end of each legislative procedure, all consultations and interactions that occurred during the preparatory phase must be identified through a legislative footprint (pegada legislativa) mechanism (Article 10). Registered representatives and public entities alike adhere to the Code of Conduct (Código de Conduta) annexed to the law (Article 15(1)), and registered data must be kept current, with updates within 30 days of any relevant change (Article 5(4)).
Non-compliance has real consequences: suspension of registration or of institutional contacts, restrictions on individual access and exclusion from public consultations, each for up to 2 years (Article 11(1)); publication of sanctioning decisions on Parliament's portal (Article 11(2)); and communication to the Public Prosecution Service (Ministério Público) where representation occurs without prior registration or false information is provided (Article 11(6)). A 3-year cooling-off period restricts former holders of political and senior public offices (Article 12(1)).
English renderings of legal concepts on this website are unofficial translations provided for convenience. The authentic text of Law No. 5-A/2026 is the Portuguese version published in the Diário da República, the Portuguese official gazette.
Who must register
The RTRI organises registered representatives into five categories (Article 13(3)): social partners and entities whose consultation is constitutionally or legally mandatory, registered automatically by the register itself (Article 13(4)); representatives of third-party interests, such as public affairs consultancies acting for clients; representatives of business interests; institutional representatives of collective interests, such as associations and federations; and other representatives. Because the law applies to national and foreign private entities alike (Article 1(1)), organisations headquartered outside Portugal fall within its scope whenever they seek to influence Portuguese public decision-making.
Professional third-party representatives
Consultancies, agencies and firms professionally engaged in representing the interests of third parties face the fullest obligations: their registration must enumerate clients, interests represented and sectors of activity, together with annual income and any subsidies or financial support from European Union institutions or public entities (Article 5(1)). They must also keep records of their contractual relationships (Article 7(2)).
The 60-day deadline
Entities professionally engaged in the legitimate representation of third-party interests must register within 60 days of the RTRI commencing operations (Article 19(2)). [The RTRI start-of-operation date is to be announced by notice of the Assembleia da República in the Diário da República — Article 18(3).] Until the register is operational, public entities themselves record and publish the audiences they grant (Article 19(1)). Foreign consultancies with Portuguese exposure should prepare their registration file now rather than wait for the notice.
How we help
We act as a specialised country desk for international organisations exposed to the Portuguese regime, combining local regulatory knowledge with delivery in English and a presence in Lisbon and Brussels.
RTRI Registration Support
Remote, end-to-end assistance for foreign entities preparing and submitting their RTRI registration, including the client, income and financial-support disclosures of Article 5(1).
Read the technical sheet →Compliance Programme Extension
A Portugal chapter for your existing EU transparency and public affairs compliance programme, so that group policies, registers and controls also satisfy the Portuguese regime.
Read the technical sheet →About the ecosystem
representacaodeinteresses.com is the international gateway of a Portuguese ecosystem of specialised websites dedicated to the new regime.
lobbying.pt
The central hub: the reference resource in Portuguese on the regime, its solutions and services.
Visit lobbying.pt →rtri.pt
The action-focused website for RTRI registration: preparation, submission and maintenance of entries.
Visit rtri.pt →lobbyingmunicipal.pt
The website dedicated to local government: how the regime applies to municipal and intermunicipal public entities (Article 3).
Visit lobbyingmunicipal.pt →representacaodeinteresses.pt
The ecosystem's specialised training portal, with the full technical catalogue in Portuguese.
Visit representacaodeinteresses.pt →Assess your exposure to the Portuguese regime
Tell us how your organisation interacts with Portuguese public entities and we will come back with a clear view of your obligations and a proposed way forward.