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Following an item published today in a weekly newspaper regarding bills that are supposedly awaiting enactment by the President of the Republic, the Presidency of the Republic is pleased to clarify:

1. The bill that regulates the access to the rendering of health care by the National Health Service, with respect to the application of mitigating rates and of special benefit regimes, was enacted on 22 November, awaiting publication in the Official Gazette;

2. The bill that approves the pricing regime of pharmaceutical products subject to medical prescription and of pharmaceutical products not subject to partly funded medical subscriptions was enacted on 21 November, awaiting publication in the Official Gazette;

3. Bill Proposal 28/XII that establishes new rules for the issue of prescriptions and provision of pharmaceutical products, preceding the fifth alteration to the Legal Regime of Pharmaceutical Products for Use by Human Beings, approved by Decree-Law No. 176/2006, dated 30 August, and the second alteration to Law No. 14/2000, dated 8 August, is under Parliamentary consideration, and is thus not awaiting enactment by the Presidency of the Republic;

4. The bill concerning legal disputes emerging from the rights of industrial property when referenced or generic pharmaceutical products are in question was received in the Presidency of the Republic on 16 November. In the terms of the Constitution, the President of the Republic has a period of 20 days to decide upon its enactment;

5. The bill that approves the 2nd stage of the privatization of REN – Redes Eléctricas Nacionais, SGPS, S.A. (National Energy Grid Company), was enacted on 2 November and published in the Official Gazette on 3 November;

6. The bill that approves the 8th stage of the privatization of EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A. (Electrical Power Distribution Company), was enacted on 25 October and published in the Official Gazette on 26 October;

7. The Parliamentary Bill that changes the procedures of recruitment, selection and employment of officers in the higher echelons of Public Administration received final global approval on 28 October, and has not yet been delivered to the Presidency of the Republic for enactment purposes;

8. The bill that subjects the road sections and subsidiary road sections of the SCUT (non toll payment) motor ways of the Algarve, Interior Beira, Interior North and Littoral Beira/Beira Alta Regions, to the toll collecting regime, was enacted on 16 November, and still awaits publication in the Official Gazette.