Portugal may soon have one more national holiday on the calendar. A petition delivered to the Assembly of the Republic proposes that Europe Day, celebrated every year on May 9, become officially a public holiday in Portugal. Petition No. 197/XVII/1st was presented with the title "Proposal for the consecration of Europe Day (May 9) as a national holiday in Portugal."
The proposal is still in an early phase and was submitted to Parliament on July 15. The next step happens on Wednesday, September 9, when the Committee on European Affairs will assess the petition's admissibility note during a meeting. Only after this process will it be possible to understand what the parliamentary path of the proposal will be.
Europe Day is celebrated on May 9 to commemorate the Schuman Declaration, presented in 1950 and considered one of the moments that was at the origin of the current European project. The date was declared Europe Day by the European Council in 1985 and became one of the symbols of European construction, with celebrations in the different Member States, although the definition of national holidays remains the responsibility of each country.
For now, there is no change to the holiday calendar or a decision to create a new mandatory day of rest. The scenario of Portugal having a new holiday on May 9 is still distant, since the discussion results only from a petition and not from a law already approved by the Assembly of the Republic.
