Official documentation.
Access to legislative diplomas, government resolutions, official communications, parliamentary initiatives and jurisprudence that frame the decision-making chain.
Documentation and briefing
Reference documents of the platform.
The documentation brings together the factual framework, the legal basis, the environmental and cultural characterisation of the territory, the comprehensive chronology, the cast of actors and analogous cases, with verified and citable sources.
For early access in an editorial, parliamentary or academic context, contact the platform or consult the press area.
General and programme legislation
Resolutions, decrees and ordinances.
Set of State acts that frame the decision-making chain of the project, from the triggering of the relocation to the reinforcement of environmental protection that collides with it.
Council of Ministers Resolution no. 66/2024
Approves the location of the new Lisbon airport (Luís de Camões) at the Alcochete firing range, which requires the relocation of the military infrastructure. Origin of the decision-making chain that led to the choice of Alter do Chão.
Diário da RepúblicaCouncil of Ministers Resolution No. 111/2025
Determines the Air Force to prepare the studies for the new location and assigns to DGAPDN the competence for the subsequent acts, "including eventual expropriations".
Diário da RepúblicaDecree-Law No. 35/2026
Classifies the Special Conservation Area of Cabeção (PTCON0029). Published twenty-eight days before the announcement of the firing range, creates a direct contradiction between two successive acts of the same State.
Diário da RepúblicaOrdinance No. 89-I/2026/1
Approves the Management Plan of the SAC Cabeção, with 48,394 hectares and identifies 25 habitats and 8 protected species, including the priority habitat 3170 and the endemic plant Halimium umbellatum var. verticillatum.
Diário da RepúblicaLaw No. 4/2025 (RJAIA)
Sixth amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Legal Regime, approved by Decree-Law No. 151-B/2013 and revised by Decree-Law No. 152-B/2017. Applicable citation: "RJAIA, in the version given by Law No. 4/2025".
Diário da RepúblicaOrder No. 806-C/2022 (RNTG)
Regulation of the National Gas Transport Network. Articles 7, No. 2 (obligation to contact REN), 19 (minimum distance of 75 metres) and 57 (prior authorisation for works in the vicinity).
Diário da RepúblicaUrban planning
Municipal Master Plan of Alter do Chão.
The territorial management instrument in force that classifies the targeted area and establishes the rules to which any project is subject.
Notice No. 18418/2023 (Amendment to the 1st Review of the PDM)
Publication in the Diário da República, 2nd Series, No. 186, of the Amendment to the 1st Review of the PDM, approved unanimously by the Municipal Assembly on 30 June 2023. Article 17, No. 6, of the regulation prohibits new construction and drastic change of land use in the Forest Conservation Spaces, a category that includes the targeted area.
Original PDF (DR 2nd Series)PDM Regulation (municipal file)
Full text of the PDM regulation made available by the municipality. Contains all land classification categories, use regimes, restrictions and applicable provisions.
Regulation (PDF)Official communications
Government announcement.
Text and framework of the public announcement that made known the choice of Alter do Chão.
Statement portugal.gov.pt
Statement entitled "Alter do Chão to receive firing range in alternative to Alcochete". Summarises the press conference in Lisbon the previous day. Documents the public confession of the Minister of Defence that the "impact studies and others" are part of the law and "will be carried out".
Government PortalParliamentary initiatives
Questions and requests in the Assembly of the Republic.
Four parliamentary groups presented, between March and April 2026, formal oversight initiatives of the decision.
Question from Bloco de Esquerda
First parliamentary initiative on the case. Raises questions to the Government about the choice of Alter do Chão and the technical grounds of the decision.
Assembly of the RepublicQuestions from Partido Comunista Português
Formal questions to the Government about the exact location of the land, identification of the affected farmers, compatibility with the Pisão Dam, compatibility with the Coudelaria de Alter, impact on tourism and incompatibility with the Ponte de Sor Municipal Aerodrome.
Assembly of the RepublicPartido Socialista initiative
Set of nine questions to the Government covering the procedure, the studies to be carried out, expropriations, environmental impact and compensation to the municipality.
Assembly of the RepublicChega request
Request for hearings in the Committees of Defence, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Environment and Energy, with a detailed list of entities to be heard.
Assembly of the RepublicCitizenship
Public petition and statements from civil society.
Documented civic mobilisation with direct effects on the parliamentary procedure.
Public Petition PT130367
"Alter do Chão, No to Firing Range". The public petition exceeded in June 2026 the threshold of 1,000 signatures that requires publication in the Assembly of the Republic's Journal and the hearing of the petitioners in committee and mobilised through the press and social media.
SignNews coverage: opposition from conservation organisations
PÚBLICO report ("Não é bom em lado nenhum") that records the opposition of nature conservation organisations, such as SPEA and FAPAS, to the location, over the impact on threatened steppe birds, the Natura 2000 network and the montado (cork and holm oak woodland).
Read on PÚBLICOJurisprudence and European law
Relevant judgments and jurisprudence.
National and European judicial decisions with direct relevance to the case.
Judgment CJEU C-613/24
Condemns Portugal to a fine of 10 million euros and 41,250 euros per day of compulsory pecuniary penalty for non-compliance with the Habitats Directive. Decree-Law 35/2026 was invoked to reduce this fine. Announcing the violation of this diploma in the same area disarms the Portuguese defence.
Europa CourtRelated CJEU jurisprudence
C-127/02 Waddenzee, C-258/11 Sweetman, C-6/04 United Kingdom, C-441/17 Białowieża. Establish the framework for interpreting Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive with direct effect, with primacy over unprovided military exceptions.
Europa CourtHeritage
International commitments of the Portuguese State.
International act that binds the Portuguese state to safeguarding obligations that internal decisions cannot contradict.
UNESCO Inscription of Portuguese Equestrian Art
Inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, during the 19th session of the Intergovernmental Committee (Asunción). The Coudelaria de Alter is a central element of the inscription, which binds the State to obligations of active protection of the material and immaterial conditions of the practice.
UNESCO Portal