This Thursday, the President of the Republic said that it was necessary to speed up the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, taking into account the upward revision to 720 million euros of the payments announced by the European Commission in June.
“I just received news today that what we still needed to receive from European funds was rounded up to 720 million in payments that were due last December, but some requirements still need to be met,” he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to reporters in Paris, where he will take part in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday.
On 24 June, the European Commission approved a provisional decision to release €714 million in funds related to Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which had been suspended due to unfinished reforms but which have since been completed in a “satisfactory” manner.
In view of the “rounding” he had noticed, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that the government would have to “do everything to put on the ground” the money it had already received, along with what it would receive.
The President of the Republic considered that “it is necessary to accelerate”, which “will now mean, at the end of 2024 and in 2025, a very sensitive recovery” so as not to have to perform a “last-minute miracle”. The European Commission is expected to extend the documents that expire in 2025 beyond 2026.
“If we invest 88 million a week, about 100 million, into the program, then we will have 400 million a month. This means that there will be 4 thousand and so millions a year, and we can accelerate this pace,” he believes.
Asked about a report published on Wednesday by the National Commission for the Monitoring of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which warned of the risk of Portugal losing European funds, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that despite the delay, the country has “the opportunity to recover”.
On Wednesday, the National Commission for the Monitoring of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (CNA-PRR) warned that there was a risk of losing European funds, recommending a review of the feasibility of investments within the established timeframe.
In its latest monitoring report, CNA-PRR recommended that the government, together with the European Commission, continue to extend some investments for three or six months, given that 39% of the investments and measures envisaged in the programme are in an “alarming” or “critical” state of progress.
It is necessary to “take full advantage of the existing PRR term,” defended Pedro Dominguinhos, president of the CNA-PRR, presenting a report that recommends extending the validity of the documents until June 2026, with an expiration date of December 2025.
The Portuguese PRR amounts to €22.2 billion in grants and loans, covering 57 reforms and 284 investments.
According to the European Commission, Portugal has so far received €6.12 billion in grants and €1.65 billion in loans, with a plan implementation rate of 22%.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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