Brussels calls for ‘timely implementation’ after Portugal failed to meet three targets for third and fourth installments

This Wednesday, the European Commission called for the “timely implementation” of Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the day it announced that Portugal had failed to meet two benchmarks and the target foreseen for the third and fourth installments.

“The Commission urges all Member States, including Portugal, to implement their respective PRRs in a timely manner,” the Community Executive Director points out in a statement, remembering that payments are “based on results and dependent on Member States’ implementation, investments and reforms. described in the relevant plans.”

The position comes on the day Brussels announces in a press release “a positive preliminary assessment of part of the interim goals and targets associated with Portugal’s request for payment of the third and fourth tranches of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.” [que financia o PRR]”, that is, 44 out of 47.

The initial statement was made earlier by Prime Minister António Costa, who, upon arriving at the EU-Balkans summit in Brussels, said that the European Commission had partially approved the last two PRR requests and had not approved them in full because it was partly due to the veto of the President of the Republic on professional reforms orders of magnitude.

“Having analyzed the evidence provided by the Portuguese authorities, the Commission considered that 44 of the 47 milestones and objectives had been achieved satisfactorily,” the community’s executive director now confirms, clarifying that “a milestone and goal related to health reforms and an important milestone related to reform of the regulated professions has not been received satisfactorily.”

For this reason, “the Commission is activating the procedure for suspending payments, […] a procedure that gives Member States additional time to achieve outstanding milestones, while receiving partial payment associated with milestones that have been satisfactorily achieved,” explains the institution.

The head of the community informed Portugal of the non-compliance with these two stages and objectives, initiating an administrative procedure between the institution and the Member State concerned.

Portugal now has the right to submit its comments to the Commission within a month and, if, after such contacts, the head of the community confirms his assessment that the outstanding goals and objectives have not been satisfactorily achieved, he will determine the amount of payment that will be suspended, after which the country will have a period within six months to satisfactorily achieve the objectives.

Regarding the positive preliminary assessment, the institution has now requested the opinion of the Economic and Financial Committee, since what is at stake is “significant progress” in public finances, health care, the tax or land registration system and government contracts, or even “major investments”. “in the areas of health, forestry, social protection, innovation, sustainable mobility, digital skills, culture, public finance and public administration.

The estimate known this Wednesday refers to the payment requests that Portugal submitted in October 2023, for the third and fourth tranches of subsidies (1.77 billion euros and 0.82 billion euros), as well as for the third and fourth tranches of loans (0 .36 billion euros and 0.22 billion euros). Euro).

With recent changes to account for high inflation and the effects of war, the Portuguese PRR now amounts to €22.2 billion in grants and loans and covers 44 reforms and 117 investments.

So far, with 17% implementation, Portugal has already received 4.07 billion euros in grants and 1.07 billion in loans.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes “transformative reforms and major investments that will have a positive impact across a wide range of key policy areas,” the note said.

“We call on Portugal to complete the remaining steps regarding reforms in the health sector and regulated professions,” says Ursula von der Leyen.