Portugal Rethinks ‘Discriminatory’ Free Museums Policy

Portugal’s culture minister has said she will rethink the country’s free admission programme for state-run museums, monuments, and palaces, citing a complaint from the European Union (EU), alongside the scheme’s cost and concerns that it is not achieving its goals.

The programme, dubbed Acesso 52, gives Portugal’s citizens and residents 52 days each year on which to visit 37 state-run museums and monuments free of charge, including the National Museum of Ancient Art and The Soares dos Reis National Museum. The scheme is not open to visitors from elsewhere in the EU.

Shortly after it was introduced in August 2024, the executive arm of the EU, the European Commission, demanded that Portugal end the “discriminatory” practice, which the organisation said violates its directive on equal access to services for its 27 member states. In a statement at the time, the commission said: “These rules constitute one of the fundamental freedoms of the EU single market, promoting cross-border activities and eliminating nationality and residence-based discrimination.”

Earlier this month, Portugal’s culture minister, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, confirmed that she would review the policy. The politician, who is a member of the country’s centre-right Social Democratic Party, prompted concerns that the scheme would be scrapped when she added that the “financial sustainability” of Portugal’s museums and heritage sites would also be explored.

Since it was introduced the programme has been used nearly 900,000 times, according to Museums and Monuments of Portugal (MMP), the governmental body that ensures the preservation and promotion of the country’s cultural heritage. These figures accounted for nearly 19 percent of the total 4.8 million people who visited state-run spaces in 2025. 

A spokesperson for the MMP told Ocula that in the 12-month period between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026, the Acesso 52 programme resulted in a loss of around €10 million in ticketing revenue across the sites it administers, and that its central government funding was increased by around €3 million to compensate for this impact. 

Asked whether scrapping the programme would make a serious difference to the financial situations of its museums and monuments, the spokesperson declined to answer directly.

“The review of the Acesso 52 measure depends on a decision by the government,” the spokesperson said. “Until that happens, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the potential implications of any changes.”

Balseiro Lopes’s office did not respond to Ocula’s request for comment. However, according to the Portuguese daily newspaper Diário de Notícias, earlier this week the minister clarified in parliament that her objective “is not to end the measure, but to make it more effective”. 

According to ticketing data shared by the minister, just over four percent of Portugal’s population is using the benefit, equating to an average of 1.4 museum visits per year. “This means that we are not consolidating or creating regular cultural habits, and that worries me,” the minister said. 

As a result, her government is now investing an additional €1 million in to cultural mediation and educational services. Balseiro Lopes said: “We have to work on the experience of those who go to museums, so that it’s not a one-time use and so that they create that habit.”

As museums battle declining visitor numbers and shrinking public funds, ticketing revenue is becoming a more important source of income, and Portugal is not alone in considering difference pricing structures for locals and visitors.

This year, the Louvre became one of several of France’s top institutions to raise ticket prices for non-EU visitors, with the hope that the proceeds—an estimated €20 million per year—will boost income amid public funding cuts to the country’s culture sector. In the UK, which left the European Union in 2016 and is therefore not bound by the commissions rules, the government said earlier this year that it would consider charging international visitors admission to national museums in England while keeping them free for residents.