I. EDITORIAL – CHANGES TO THE PORTUGUESE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM

In a month of October that was affected by the municipal elections and the scourge of the wildfires, inevitably the legislative activity slowed down to a crawl. Nevertheless, emphasis should be given to the publication of the Decree-Law no. 126-B/2017, of October 6.

 This legal act proceeds to implement a series of measures that allows beneficiaries of the social security system and of the special scheme of converging social protection – with (i) contributive periods equal or upwards of 48 years; (ii) that started their professional activity with 14 years or less and have reached at least 60 years of age and have a contributive period of at least 46 years – early access to the retirement pension without receiving any penalty to the value of the pension.

The Portuguese Lawmaker is also considering new changes to the Social Security System, with emphasis to the Decree-Law no. 126-A/2017, of October 6.

Concerning Case Law, the Judgement of the Court, of 19 October 2017, Case C‑295/16, concerning issues surrounding Consumer Law should be emphasized, as well as the Judgment of the Constitutional Court no. 652/2017 of October 11, Case 251/2016.

In this last judgment the Portuguese Constitucional Court has reinforced previous decisions that deems constitutional the lack of possibility of appeal of the decision by the Portuguese Supreme Court to impose a surplus penalty charge when there is prior hearing of the interested party.

Finally, concerning miscellaneous issues, it must be pointed out the early reimbursement to the IMF of yet another installment of the credit equivalent to one billion euros, as well the election of Portuguese António Campinos as President of the European Patent Office.