The President of the Republic said this Thursday that he noted “with joy” the Prime Minister’s news that the European Commission has already given the green light for the third and fourth allocations of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). ).
António Costa made this announcement during the ceremony of handing over the government’s greetings to the President of the Republic at the Palácio de Belém in Lisbon, saying that 2.400 million euros are at stake, with about 700 million euros remaining in the first months. of the year.
Head of State Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, speaking after the Prime Minister, reacted to this statement in his speech: “I am happy to note the news you are reporting about the PDP.”
After this, the President of the Republic mentioned changes in the statutes of professional orders associated with the PRR, some of which he vetoed: “I tried to contribute to 21 professional orders, which from the very beginning all wanted to veto its statute. Only seven were vetoed, 14 were made public.”
“And here, as always, we had some differences of opinion on this issue. One of several that have not been discussed publicly. But the fact is that everything is on time for the payments to happen, minus 600 million, and 600 million will arrive in due time,” he added.
On this occasion, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza also raised concerns he expressed about the “speed of execution on the ground” of the initial PRR payment.
“And I must admit that until the middle of this year it lagged far behind, but from the spring-summer transition to the end of the year it recovered and exceeded 3 billion local executions, whereas for the year it was 1800. For a long time – 1,900 million,” – he said.
Prime Minister António Costa touched on this topic, recalling that the President of the Republic, in his last New Year’s message, called 2023 a “decisive year” for the utilization of European funds and, in particular, PDP funds. .
“It was not an easy year because there were a lot of requests. But the truth is that today we can arrive at the Belem Palace with good news: just today the European Commission approved the transfer to Portugal next week of an amount corresponding to the essence of the third and fourth payments of the PRR. This is 2,400 million euros,” said António Costa.
According to the Prime Minister, in the European Union “there is only one country that will receive the fourth payment.”
António Costa added that “a part remains, about 700 million euros, but it will be paid in the first months of the year”, when the diploma for integrated responsibility centers in hospitals comes into force and the Assembly of the Republic confirms the seven diplomas that were vetoed by the President of the Republic, reforming statutes of professional orders.
These diplomas, “in the absence of any constitutional changes, will come into force to ensure timely payment” to the European Commission.
On the other hand, António Costa added, now only about 20 municipalities have not yet signed the agreement on decentralization in the health sector – the third condition for Portugal to receive the remaining 700 million of missing PRR funds.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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