Zonas Livres Tecnológicas — Portugal's Cross-Sector Regulatory Sandbox Regime, With an AI and Autonomous-Systems Zone in Aveiro

Decree-Law no. 67/2021 of 30 July 2021 (4 chapters, 16 articles) established Portugal's Technological Free Zones (Zonas Livres Tecnológicas, ZLT): a general, cross-sector legal framework for testing innovative technologies in a real environment under a more flexible legal regime. It follows Council of Ministers Resolution 29/2020 and differs from sandboxes in other countries that are confined to financial or insurance regulation.
Zones are created by ordinance on request and are managed by a designated entity in coordination with the National Innovation Agency (ANI), sector regulators and municipalities. In March 2025 two zones were published: Viana do Castelo (Ordinance 96/2025/1, led by the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology, offshore renewables) and Aveiro (Ordinance 119/2025/1, coordinated by the University of Aveiro, covering land, air, estuarine and maritime areas in Aveiro and Ílhavo for communications, electronics, autonomous systems, AI and smart mobility).
Evidence so far is early and self-reported: the Interreg Europe good-practice entry for the Aveiro zone says it has attracted around five companies preparing trials, including a NATO drone exercise in October 2025, uses existing infrastructure without dedicated funding and is run by two full-time staff. No independent evaluation of safety outcomes, regulatory learning or economic impact has been published. The regime is general-purpose rather than AI-specific, so its relevance to AI governance is as a testing channel, not as an AI-specific safeguard.

Read the full analysis: https://novaconsumerlab.novalaw.unl.pt/technological-free-zones-and-the-portuguese-regulatory-sandbox-legal-framework