The administrative justice has approved a legal injunction to end the “discriminatory practice” that allowed residents of Lisbon to avoid paying entrance fees, unlike other national residents, at national monuments managed by the municipal cultural company of the capital.
This action was initiated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and was accepted on June 18 by the Southern Central Administrative Court. Among the “real estate and movable assets classified as of national and public interest” covered by this injunction are the São Jorge Castle and the Fernando Pessoa House and its collection, announced today by the Department of State Litigation and Collective and Diffuse Interests (DCCEICD).
The MP’s note highlights that the decision of that appellate court “determined the cessation of differentiated treatment between Lisbon residents and other residents nationwide” regarding access to those spaces.
The DCCEICD does not clarify the position of the Lisbon Administrative Court, the first instance court where the injunction was filed.
The action demanding the end of the differentiation arose after the MP identified a “discriminatory practice in access conditions to national monuments located in Lisbon, managed by ‘EGEAC, Empresa Municipal SA’, specifically the exemption from ticket payment based on the visitor’s residence.”
This constitutes, in the view of the DCCEICD, a violation of the “right to universal access under equal conditions to cultural assets of national interest.”
Lusa asked EGEAC – Empresa de Gestão de Equipamentos e Animação Cultura, E.M., S.A., how it will implement the decision of the Southern Central Administrative Court and is awaiting a response.
