The group unveiled its conclusions on Wednesday, stating that the period was "very satisfactory".


For the government, secretary of state for local administration, António Leitão Amaro, welcomed the conclusions
"It is possible to reform in a spirit of dialogue," he said. "This is a good lesson for some political parties. They turned their backs on consensus during these years, but that doesn't matter.


"That will be the subject of public judgement shortly," he continued, in a reference to the 4 October general election. "The judgement that came from outside, from such an organisation as the Council of Europe, is that in the field of local government Portugal made very important reforms, increased cooperation and bolstered the role of local councils."


In its report, the Council of Europe group highlighted "deep reforms" in local authorities, the new law on local finance, and the reduction in structures, expenditure and debt, and looked forward to further results from the decentralisation process currently underway.


"I'm very interested... in knowing how [decentralisation] will go ... in Portugal," said the report's main author, Jos Wienen. "Portugal had to pay a major price" as part of its euro-zone bailout, he noted, but "despite the difficulties, there was no change in the power relationship" between central and local government.


Gudrun Mosler Tornstrom, vice-president of the Council of Europe's congress of local authorities, said she was "proud" of what Portugal had achieved and that it was "the only country so far to accept the [Council's] recommendations and implement them."