Public procurement in Portugal · Decree-Law 177/2026
Portugal's new procurement code, article by article
Under Portugal's new Código dos Contratos Públicos (CCP), direct award (ajuste direto) is allowed below EUR 75,000 for goods and services and below EUR 150,000 for works, and consulta prévia below EUR 130,000 and below EUR 1,000,000 (art. 20(1) and art. 19(c) and (d)). Decree-Law 177/2026, of 4 September, which amended and republished the code, has been in force since 1 October 2026 (art. 11) and applies to procedures started after that date (art. 10(1)); procedures started up to 30 September 2026 keep the previous text, so the two regimes run side by side for months. Also new: the consulta prévia especial (arts. 127-A to 127-C); the Annex I declaration goes, and the grounds for excluding a tender move to art. 70.
Rules read in the Diário da República, in Decree-Law 177/2026 and the consolidated CCP, on 14 September 2026, with corrections on 7 October 2026.
Data: Portal BASE (IMPIC), edition
EUR 75,000direct award limit for goods and services, was EUR 20,000
EUR 150,000direct award limit for works, was EUR 30,000
EUR 1,000,000consulta prévia limit for works, was EUR 150,000
7,968public tenders of 2025 with a base price in the bands that move to consulta prévia
Which regime applies: the start date decides
Decree-Law 177/2026 came into force on 1 October 2026 (art. 11). Its amendments to the CCP apply to procedures for forming public contracts started after that date (art. 10(1)), and so do the new direct award and consulta prévia limits (art. 7(2)). Procedures already running take only two matters at once: objective modification of the contract and alternative dispute resolution (art. 10(2)).
A procedure starts with the decision to contract (art. 36(1) CCP). So the date of the notice or the invitation only bounds the start from above: a notice published before 1 October proves the previous regime, but a later notice does not prove the new one, because the decision to contract may date from September. The date that counts is the decision to contract.
One rule keeps its words and changes its effect: the limit on inviting the same supplier again. Art. 113(2) bars a buyer from inviting, by consulta prévia or direct award chosen on value, anyone it has already awarded, in the current financial year and the two before, contracts whose combined price reaches the limits of those subparagraphs. In new procedures those limits are the new ones, and the total counts the current year and the two before (Decree-Law 177/2026, art. 7(2)).
What TRINTA could not verify
The day of 1 October 2026 itself. Art. 10(1) and art. 7(2) of the decree-law say «após» (after) its entry into force; the notes in the Diário da República say «a partir de 1 de outubro de 2026» (from 1 October 2026). A procedure whose decision to contract falls on that day has, as far as we can tell, no settled regime.
The special regimes of Law 30/2021 (arts. 2 to 16), repealed by art. 8(b) of the decree-law: it is not expressly confirmed that they still apply to procedures started up to 30 September 2026.
The time limits of the flexible open tender regime (arts. 161-C to 161-E), which were not read.
The limits, before and after
Choosing a procedure on value sets the least open procedure the law allows and imposes none: an open tender advertised in the EU Official Journal is allowed at any value (art. 19(a)). In new procedures the value that decides is the estimated contract value, calculated under the new art. 17-A, with splitting and aggregation in art. 17-B.
The limits, before and after
Procedure
Started up to 30/09/2026
Started after 1/10/2026
Rule
Direct award (ajuste direto)Goods and services
below EUR 20,000
below EUR 75,000
art. 20(1)(d)
Consulta préviaGoods and services
below EUR 75,000
below EUR 130,000
art. 20(1)(c)
Direct award (ajuste direto)Works
below EUR 30,000
below EUR 150,000
art. 19(d)
Consulta préviaWorks
below EUR 150,000
below EUR 1,000,000
art. 19(c)
Direct award (ajuste direto)Other contracts
not verified
below EUR 75,000
art. 21(1)
Consulta préviaOther contracts
not verified
below EUR 130,000
art. 21(1)
Simplified direct awardGoods and services
price up to EUR 5,000
unchanged
art. 128(1)
Simplified direct awardWorks
price up to EUR 10,000
unchanged
art. 128(1)
Consulta prévia especialPurposes in art. 127-B
did not exist
below the EU threshold and EUR 2,000,000
arts. 127-A and 127-B
EU Official Journal notice (EU threshold)Goods and services, central government
from EUR 140,000
unchanged
Delegated Reg. (EU) 2025/2152; art. 474(3)
EU Official Journal notice (EU threshold)Goods and services, other buyers
from EUR 216,000
unchanged
Delegated Reg. (EU) 2025/2152; art. 474(3)
EU Official Journal notice (EU threshold)Works
from EUR 5,404,000
unchanged
Delegated Reg. (EU) 2025/2152; art. 474(3)(a)
The CCP as republished by Decree-Law 177/2026 writes EUR 139,000 in art. 474(3)(b) for goods and services awarded by central government. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152 has applied directly since 1 January 2026 and says EUR 140,000, as does IMPIC's note on Portal BASE; the table shows EUR 140,000. The decree-law's page in the Diário da República lists no correction, but we did not run a search aimed at correction notices.
Art. 21(1) in its previous wording was not read, so the table gives it no limits. Simplified direct award counts the contract price, not the estimated value, and art. 128 provides it only for goods and services and for works.
Madeira and the Azores: neither the previous nor the republished text of arts. 19 and 20 carries regional coefficients. The regional legislative decrees that adapt the CCP were not read.
New art. 129-A: after a state of siege, emergency or calamity, simplified direct award up to EUR 500,000 for works and up to EUR 100,000 for goods and services, only for one year after the declaration ends (para. 3).
Which procedure? Value, type and date
Enter the estimated contract value, its type and the date of the decision to contract. The answer is the least open procedure the value allows under each regime, with the rule; a buyer can always choose a more open one.
Reading: EUR 100,000
Previous regime, started up to 30/09/2026
Open or restricted tender
From EUR 75,000 the value no longer fits a consulta prévia: open tender or restricted tender with prior qualification (art. 20.º, n.º 1, al. b)).
New regime, started after 1/10/2026
Applies by date
Consulta prévia
Below EUR 130,000 a consulta prévia is allowed, with at least three invited suppliers (art. 20.º, n.º 1, al. c); art. 114(1)).
The consulta prévia especial
It is a new procedure, available only in procedures started after 1 October 2026. The buyer directly invites at least five suppliers of its choice to bid (art. 127-A(1)), against three in the general consulta prévia (art. 114(1)).
It applies when the estimated value is at once below the applicable EU threshold and below EUR 2,000,000 (art. 127-B), and only for the purposes that article lists: EU-funded projects, public housing, properties handed over to municipalities, information technology, health and social support, and interventions declared a priority by ministerial order (despacho).
It has its own limit on repeat invitations: suppliers awarded consultas prévias especiais for the same kind of work, in the current year and the two before, with a combined total of EUR 2,000,000 or more for works and concessions, or the EU threshold for goods and services, cannot be invited (art. 127-C). The simplified consultas prévias of Law 30/2021 count towards that total (Decree-Law 177/2026, art. 7(3)).
The prior hearing follows the general consulta prévia (art. 127-A(2)): no fewer than three days (art. 123(1)).
The same decree-law repeals arts. 2 to 16 of Law 30/2021 (art. 8(b)), which held the simplified consulta prévia, also with at least five invitations and below EUR 750,000 for EU-funded projects (art. 2(b) of Law 30/2021).
What changes in the bid, in exclusion and in the rest of the procedure
In procedures started after 1 October 2026. In those started up to 30 September, the previous rule applies, which each point also states.
The Annex I declaration is gone
Art. 8(a) of the decree-law repeals art. 57(1)(a) and Annexes I, II, V and XIII of the CCP. New procedures have no Annex I declaration; where the procedure is advertised in the EU Official Journal, the bidder submits the ESPD (DEUCP, art. 57(6)). In procedures started up to 30 September 2026 the declaration is still required, and with an EU notice the ESPD replaces it. Art. 72(3)(a), in the consolidated text, still mentions the Annex I and V declarations, since repealed.
Works: partial prices in the bid
The list of unit prices is required only when the specifications include a detailed design (art. 57(2)(a)), and a new subparagraph (e) asks for the partial prices of the works by contractor licence category (alvará) and, where relevant, by member of the consortium.
Exclusion grounds move to art. 70
The decree-law repeals art. 146(2) to (4). Art. 70(2) takes the grounds that were there: late submission (a), missing documents (d), signatures and language (e), the submission formalities of art. 62 (j) and false statements (k), plus two new subparagraphs, (m) and (n). Art. 70(3) takes the grounds found on analysing the bid, among them a price above the base price (d) and an abnormally low price (e). In consulta prévia and direct award, art. 122(2) refers to both. The jury may propose excluding a bid for a curable irregularity only after asking for it to be cured without reply (art. 146(5) and art. 72(3)).
The base price becomes optional
The buyer may set, in the invitation or the procedure rules, a base parameter for the price to be paid (art. 47), and paragraphs 3 to 6 of that article are repealed. Where there is a base price, a bid above it is excluded (art. 70(3)(d)). Without one, the buyer may decline to award when it finds, with reasons, that every price offered is unacceptable (art. 79(1)(e)).
The 20% above-base-price exception ends
Up to 30 September 2026, in an open or restricted tender where every bid was excluded, the procedure rules could allow awarding a bid excluded only on price up to 20% above the base price (former art. 70(6)). The republished text does not move it to another article: in new procedures it is gone. Direct award remains available when every bid in an earlier tender below the EU thresholds was excluded (art. 24(1)(b)), chosen within six months and without substantially changing the documents (para. 2).
Clarifications in consulta prévia and direct award: six days instead of nine
When the time to bid is under six days (it was nine), clarifications and corrections to the documents may be given up to the day before the deadline (art. 116). In a consulta prévia with seven days to bid, the day-before rule applied up to 30 September and no longer applies in new procedures.
Qualification: the buyer fetches the documents
Buyers must obtain the qualification information on their own initiative through interoperability, and may ask the winning bidder only for what they cannot obtain (art. 81(10)); art. 83-A accepts information from the State's interoperability tools, digital wallets included. The Annex II declaration goes (art. 81(1)), and the extension of the deadline, up to five days, is no longer limited to a single extension (art. 85(2)).
Grounds for exclusion of the bidder, revised
In art. 55(1), the conviction in (b) counts when the offence was committed less than three years ago, and the one in (h) when it is less than five years old; a new (m) covers strong indications of earlier anti-competitive practice; and para. 3 lets a buyer admit a bidder with a debt of up to EUR 10,000, with assignment of the claim.
Prior information notice becomes optional
Art. 34(1) said buyers «enviam» (send) a prior information notice to the EU Official Journal; it now says they «podem enviar» (may send) one. Where there is one, it still allows the minimum time to bid in a tender advertised in the EU Official Journal to come down to 15 days (art. 136(2)).
Flexible open tender
A new regime applies to contracts whose estimated value is below the EU thresholds (art. 161-A(1)). Under it the buyer may cut to three days the time to comment on the preliminary report (art. 161-B(1)(b)), and administrative challenges run on three-day limits (art. 161-B(4)). The minimum capacity requirements of art. 161-D are an exclusion ground of their own (art. 70(2)(n)).
Direct award after a calamity
New art. 129-A allows, after a state of siege, emergency or calamity, simplified direct award up to EUR 500,000 for works and up to EUR 100,000 for goods and services, only for one year after the declaration ends (para. 3).
Award criterion and tie-breaks
Awards now go to the «proposta mais vantajosa» (most advantageous tender), determined so as to secure the best relation between the costs borne and the benefits (art. 74(1)). The invitation or rules may define tie-break criteria (para. 4); failing that, ties are broken by the award factors in order of weight and, last, by lot (para. 5(b) and (c)).
Specially related invitees
In a consulta prévia, invitees are specially related when they share the same beneficial owner or at least one member of the board or management, or stand in a relationship of shareholding, control or group; entities set up or used to get round the rule are also excluded (art. 114(2) and (3), and art. 113(6)).
Before the procedure: three new articles
Unsolicited proposals from suppliers, which the buyer answers within 90 days, silence counting as a refusal (art. 35-B); no-charge test periods for information systems and technology, which must be published on the public contracts portal (art. 35-C); and a duty to identify needs in advance (art. 35-D).
Communications and extensions
In a consulta prévia, the invitation and the bid travel by electronic means or through an electronic platform (art. 115(4)). The presumption that communications made after 5 p.m. or on a non-working day count as made at 10 a.m. on the next working day is repealed (art. 469(2); decree-law, art. 8(a)). An extension of the time to bid on request no longer requires the applicant to have obtained the documents (art. 64(4) and (5)).
What stays the same
Compared line by line between the previous and the consolidated text, these articles keep their wording under both regimes:
Art. 50: clarifications and the list of errors and omissions are requested in the first third of the time to bid, and answered by the end of the second third.
Art. 63: the time to bid is set freely, within the Code's minimums; consulta prévia and direct award have no statutory minimum.
Art. 112: a direct award invites one supplier, a consulta prévia at least three (with art. 114(1)).
Art. 123(1): prior hearing in a consulta prévia, no fewer than three days.
Art. 125: with a single bid there is no negotiation, prior hearing or reports.
Arts. 128 and 129: simplified direct award up to EUR 5,000 for goods and services and EUR 10,000 for works, for at most three years and at a fixed price.
Art. 130: an open tender is advertised in the Diário da República.
Arts. 135 and 136: minimum time to bid of 6 days without an EU notice (14 for works, reducible to 6) and 30 with one (15 with a prior information notice or justified urgency).
Art. 147: prior hearing in an open tender, no fewer than five days.
Arts. 470 and 471: time limits in the award phase are counted under the Code of Administrative Procedure, and the time to bid runs continuously.
Law 96/2015, on e-procurement platforms and qualified electronic signatures, is not amended by Decree-Law 177/2026.
TRINTA's count: the market does not shrink, it becomes less visible
The new limits do not change what the State buys; they change the door it buys through. An open tender is advertised in the Diário da República (art. 130(1)) and any company can see it. A consulta prévia has no notice: the invitation goes straight to the suppliers the buyer picks, and the contract appears on Portal BASE only once it has been signed (art. 127(1)).
We counted, in the 2025 register, how much of the market falls in the bands that change door. These are works and services that were advertised and that, in new procedures, the buyer is no longer required to advertise.
Open tenders advertised in the Diário da República in 2025
Open tenders advertised in the Diário da República in 2025
Number
Base price, summed
Reading
Works with a base price from EUR 150,000 to under EUR 1,000,000
3,906
EUR 1,630.9M
54.9% of the 7,114 works tenders with a base price
Goods, services and leasing with a base price from EUR 75,000 to under EUR 130,000
4,062
EUR 405.8M
19.4% of the 20,913 goods and services tenders with a base price
Both bands together
7,968
EUR 2,036.7M
28.0% of the 28,364 open tenders advertised
In 2025, 7,968 open tenders, 28.0% of the 28,364 advertised in the Diário da República, had a base price in the bands the new CCP moves to consulta prévia. For works the share is larger: 3,906, 54.9% of the works tenders advertised with a base price. In procedures started after 1 October 2026, a buyer may run a contract of that size as a consulta prévia, with at least three invitations and no notice. How far buyers will use that room is not yet known; the figures say how much of the market it reaches.
Consultas prévias with a contract signed in 2025
Consultas prévias with a contract signed in 2025
Number
Base price, summed
Reading
Consultas prévias for goods, services and leasing with a base price from EUR 20,000 to under EUR 75,000
19,314
EUR 877.0M
band the new regime opens to direct award
Consultas prévias for works with a base price from EUR 30,000 to under EUR 150,000
4,234
EUR 367.1M
band the new regime opens to direct award
One step down, the same thing: 19,314 consultas prévias for goods, services and leasing and 4,234 for works, with a contract signed in 2025, had a base price in the band the new regime opens to direct award, with a single invitation (art. 20(1)(d) and art. 19(d)).
How this was counted, and what these figures are not
Base price, not estimated value
The law decides on the estimated contract value (art. 17-A), which is published neither in the notice nor in the contract. The notice's base price is the closest proxy there is, and a contract can have its base price on one side of a limit and its estimated value on the other.
They are floors
IMPIC's 2025 notice file holds 33,300 notice numbers and the numbering runs to 33,677: 377 are missing (1.1%), of unknown type, spread across the year. A missing notice can only add.
The Azores are left out
The 220 tenders of the Azores Official Journal have their own numbering and are not counted. They would add 22 works tenders and 53 goods and services tenders to the bands.
Open tenders only
Counted: procedure notices and urgent tender notices with the "Concurso público" model in the Diário da República's 2nd series (743 urgent ones in all). Left out: amendments, which repeat the base price, and restricted tenders with prior qualification in the same bands (20 for works and 45 for goods and services).
By number, not by value
The 28.0% share counts notices. The share in euros was not calculated: it needs the highest-value notices checked one by one, some of them with a wrong base price in the Diário da República itself.
Bands and shares
Each band includes its lower limit and excludes its upper one. The works share counts the 7,114 with a published base price; over all 7,120 it would be 54.8%. The 4,062 goods and services tenders include 109 leases and 56 mixed notices. Shares are cut at one decimal, never rounded.
The consultas prévias
They count general-regime procedures, once each, by the procedure's base price, with a contract signed in 2025; the 569 simplified consultas prévias of Law 30/2021 are left out, and contracts under the Madeira regime are in. The sums are base prices, not money paid.
2025 data, previous regime
This is a picture of what the bands would have covered over a whole year, not a forecast of what buyers will do.
Source: IMPIC open data (Portal BASE) on dados.gov.pt, notices and contracts of 2025, edition of 4 October 2026; counted by TRINTA on 7 October 2026, each figure by two independent paths, with 30 notices checked against the Diário da República PDF. Amounts in millions, cut at one decimal.
What a supplier can do
A consulta prévia or a direct award in progress is not visible to the public. Portal BASE's public search has eight types (contracts, Diário da República notices, entities, contract modifications, movable assets, contracts not concluded, challenges and preliminary market consultations) and none of them is procedures or invitations; Diário da República notices have no consulta prévia or direct award model; and IMPIC's open data has no procedures dataset. BASE's own FAQ puts it plainly: a direct award or consulta prévia is published after the contract is signed.
What becomes public is the contract. A contract signed after a consulta prévia or a direct award is published on Portal BASE through a record (art. 127(1)), and that publication is a condition of the contract's effect for any payment (art. 127(3)). The record is generated from the contract formation report, filed within 20 working days of signing the written contract (Portaria 318-B/2023, art. 8(1)(j) and art. 11(1)). Simplified direct award is exempt from that publication (art. 128(3)).
So the question is no longer only "which tenders opened today" but also "who buys what I sell, from whom and at what price". The contract register answers that buyer by buyer, and TRINTA publishes it counted: how much each Portuguese buyer awards directly (in Portuguese), the largest buyers (in Portuguese) and the largest suppliers, from Portal BASE.
Before a procedure there are two public signals, both optional for the buyer: preliminary market consultations (art. 35-A), which BASE publishes when the buyer reports them, and the prior information notice in the EU Official Journal (art. 34), which is no longer mandatory. After it, BASE's "contracts not concluded" type shows procedures that ended without a contract, consultas prévias included.
The limit on repeat invitations in art. 113(2) (the combined total of the current year and the two before) is measured, in new procedures, against the new limits, which are higher.
TRINTA does not alert on consultas prévias in progress, because no public source shows them. It reads the contracts they produce.
Frequently asked questions
01
What is Portugal's new public procurement code and when did it take effect?
+
It is the Código dos Contratos Públicos (CCP) as amended and republished by Decree-Law 177/2026, of 4 September. It came into force on 1 October 2026 (art. 11) and applies to procedures started after that date (art. 10(1)); procedures started up to 30 September 2026 keep the previous text.
02
What is the direct award limit in Portugal in 2026?
+
In procedures started after 1 October 2026, direct award (ajuste direto) chosen on value is allowed below EUR 75,000 for goods and services (art. 20(1)(d)) and below EUR 150,000 for works (art. 19(d)), on estimated value. In procedures started up to 30 September, the limits were EUR 20,000 and EUR 30,000.
03
What is the consulta prévia limit under the new CCP?
+
Below EUR 130,000 for goods and services (art. 20(1)(c)) and below EUR 1,000,000 for works (art. 19(c)), in procedures started after 1 October 2026. Before, it was EUR 75,000 and EUR 150,000. The minimum of three invitations does not change (art. 114(1)).
04
Up to what value can a works contract go by consulta prévia?
+
In procedures started after 1 October 2026, up to under EUR 1,000,000 of estimated value (art. 19(c)); it was under EUR 150,000. Above that, the value points to an open tender or a restricted tender with prior qualification, except for the consulta prévia especial, which reaches under EUR 2,000,000 for the purposes in art. 127-B.
05
What is the consulta prévia especial?
+
A new procedure in the republished CCP: the buyer directly invites at least five suppliers (art. 127-A(1)), with an estimated value below the EU threshold and below EUR 2,000,000, and only for the purposes in art. 127-B, such as EU-funded projects, public housing, information technology or health and social support.
06
Which regime applies to a procedure started in September 2026?
+
The previous one: Decree-Law 177/2026 applies to procedures started after 1 October 2026 (art. 10(1)), and a procedure starts with the decision to contract (art. 36(1)). Procedures in progress take only the rules on objective modification of the contract and alternative dispute resolution at once (art. 10(2)).
07
Is the Annex I declaration still required?
+
Not in procedures started after 1 October 2026: Decree-Law 177/2026 repealed art. 57(1)(a) and Annex I (art. 8(a)). Where the procedure is advertised in the EU Official Journal, the bidder submits the ESPD (art. 57(6)). In procedures started up to 30 September, the declaration is still required.
08
Is a base price still mandatory in Portuguese tenders?
+
Not in new procedures: the buyer may set a base parameter for the price (art. 47). Where it does, a bid above it is excluded (art. 70(3)(d)), and the former exception that allowed awarding up to 20% above the base price (art. 70(6)) is gone.
09
Did the EU thresholds change with the new CCP?
+
No. They come from Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152, applicable since 1 January 2026: EUR 140,000 for central government goods and services, EUR 216,000 for other buyers and EUR 5,404,000 for works. The republished CCP writes EUR 139,000 for central government (art. 474(3)(b)); the regulation prevails.
10
How many open tenders could move to consulta prévia?
+
In 2025, 7,968 of the 28,364 open tenders advertised in the Diário da República (28.0%) had a base price in the bands the new CCP moves to consulta prévia: 3,906 for works and 4,062 for goods and services. TRINTA's count on IMPIC open data: it is a floor, it uses the base price rather than the estimated value, and it leaves out the Azores.
TRINTA, "Portugal's new procurement code, article by article", Portal BASE (IMPIC), edition 4 October 2026, https://trinta.ai/portugal-public-procurement-code-2026 (accessed [date]).
This is editorial information about public procurement, not legal advice. The rules were read in the Diário da República; for a specific procedure, check them in the consolidated text and in the procedure documents.