New digital hub for public services
The gov.pt website will be launched in September 2024 and an application is planned for the 1st quarter of 2025.
The Government will launch the Gov.pt website in September to function as a digital hub for various public services, from the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) to Social Security.
The decision was confirmed by the Minister of Youth and Modernization, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting that took place this Tuesday in Costa da Caparica, dedicated to the digitalization of public administration.
The Portuguese State already has a portal that works with this objective – the website eportugal.gov.pt, managed by the public institute Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA) – which allows citizens and companies to be directed to the entities responsible for resolving issues (such as how and where to arrange their passport, citizenship card, where to pay the Single Road Tax, where to check tax debts, what to do to open a restaurant or other establishment, for example).
Now, with the creation of the Gov.pt channel, the Government intends to make the way in which citizens and companies interact with the State more accessible.
Specific service websites, such as the Finance Portal, will not go away. What will happen, explained Balseiro Lopes, is that “the citizen enters Gov.pt and, without realizing it, because we follow the same design system [system development], they are having access to an AT service”.
When launched in September, Gov.pt will integrate a first set of public services. It will also be available in English.
And there is another new feature: it will be possible to view the history of interactions that a citizen or a company has had with the State, whether on the website, or in the application that will be launched later (in the first quarter of 2025), or in person in a store or in a citizen space, whether through the telephone line.
“The objective is for several public administration entities to integrate their services”, highlighted the minister, also giving as an example the Id.gov application, which will also be integrated into this platform.
This application now allows you to have access to official personal documents, issued by the State, such as a citizen card or driving license in digital format, but with the same legal validity as physical cards.
The idea is that cards from other entities that may not even be public, such as pharmacies or insurance companies, are now included.
“To make people's lives easier, we will even include — and this was a suggestion that came to us — the cards of minor children in their parents' wallets,” said the minister.
The “Perdi a Carteira” (I lost my wallet) digital counter will also be created at Gov.pt, similar to the service already available at Loja do Cidadão das Laranjeiras, in Lisbon, where it will be possible to request a duplicate of lost documents.
“With just one click, we can access a duplicate of our documents that will then be sent to our home,” she explained.
Administrative simplification package
On Tuesday, the Government approved 15 public administration modernization measures to be launched soon, some by 2025.
Aware that many of the measures may be excluding citizens who do not have digital skills, the minister announced that the Government wants to reinforce the network of Shops and Citizen Spaces.
The Government's objective is to have, by 2026, 23 more stores, adding to the 73 already existing; and increase the current network of Citizen Spaces by 250 by the second half of 2026, reaching new locations where there are no public services yet. The expansion will be carried out in the consular network, in local authorities, in higher education institutions and in hospitals, with 27 having already expressed this interest. If completed, the number of Citizen Spaces will reach 1143 in two years. This Tuesday, a protocol was signed with Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in Costa da Caparica (where the Council of Ministers took place), for the installation of one of these service points.
From the last quarter of the year, it will be possible for foreign citizens (with a residence permit granted, resident EU nationals, applicants or beneficiaries of international protection and with refugee status) to have access, in Citizen Spaces, to their phone numbers. tax identification (NIF), Social Security and Health user identification in one place.
“We have thousands of foreign citizens living in Portugal who cannot access something as basic as their NIF, NISS or user number. In this way, we will take pressure off Finance, Social Security, Citizen's Stores”, highlighted Margarida Balseiro Lopes, adding that this is a joint project between AMA and the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA).
Simplex remains and passport term increases to ten years
Among the 15 approved measures is the possibility of digitally changing the health center or school of students, when changing their address to a different municipality than the current one. During the second quarter of 2025, this will become possible. The user may also choose to maintain registration with the same health center.
In the first quarter of 2026, the passport's validity period will be ten years (currently five). However, the Government points out that, in the case of minors, it is possible for the five-year period to be maintained.
Another measure involves updating the National State Supplier Portal (PNFE). Balseiro Lopes highlighted that for several years the State has not been able to request documents that it already has in its possession, but that this rule has not always become a reality. And, to counter this trend, the suppliers' digital platform will gain new features so that a company that applies for or wins a certain public tender will no longer “permanently deliver documents such as the declaration of no debt to Social Security, the Tax Authority or criminal record”.
“The company gives authorization to the State” for it to retrieve the documents it already has in its possession, “relieving” the collective entity of this burden, explained the Minister of Modernization.
The digitalization measures now launched maintain the insignia of the Simplex program, which was launched by the socialist government of José Sócrates and recovered by António Costa after Pedro Passos Coelho's executive (PSD-CDS/PP) abandoned that designation. The new coalition executive, said Balseiro Lopes, will maintain the name of the program so as to “not destroy” what was done in the past. But because the Government does not want “measures by meter”, the 15 now planned have an execution deadline of 2025 and are focused “on the impact” on citizens and companies, said the government official.
The minister also announced that the Government intends to create a model for evaluating public services to identify what difficulties citizens experience when interacting with the State and, for now, it will move forward in 2025 with a first phase of evaluations of three services, which it did not specify. what they will be.