Portugal has begun fining cruisers who upon vessel inspection are discovered to have expired flares, fire extinguishers and life rafts. If you don't have an item that is not required such as a liferaft, you're fine. But if have a liferaft even though it is not required, and it is out of date, you can be fined. Also, they are intensively policing adherence to COLREGS (black ball, white light when anchored, cone underway when sails up and motoring, etc) There is a useful discussion here: http://liveinfo.lagosnavigators.net/httpdocs/bureaucracy/application-to-visiting-yachtsmen/

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Hi Daria,
We have a Winslow raft and still consider it a (maybe the) top raft for a number of reasons. When in Europe for our 10 years cruising there, we sent the raft to Belgium (2008 or so and shipping paid for by Winslow) for servicing. The last servicing was by AB in Guernsey who did an excellent job allowing us to be involved as much as we wished and they shared excellent advice.
Alchemy may have done her last significant ocean passage with us aboard, so we considered not carrying a raft as servicing is on the horizon. We will do occasional one- and 2-day overnight runs, but primarily plan coastal cruising. Ours is a 16 yo raft which we have stored in a locker out of the sun, rain and green water and so has a very good chance of continued life. But we are still in very cold waters and we sail the off-season, so we figured a raft was worthwhile.
For about twice what we would spend for a servicing we are buying (boat show price) a Winslow ultra-light offshore raft. It checks all the boxes for us and is about ½ the weight and size of our present raft.
I wrote a broader note on my thoughts on having a raft earlier in this discussion stream. Flag if you have trouble finding it.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy