Prime Minister-designate Luis Montenegro this Thursday assured European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of the speed of implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) in order to “catch up” while awaiting the new tranche. for the country later this month.
“I hope not [se percam verbas]although we know that some obligations of the Portuguese government [cessante] It is assumed that they have not yet been implemented, that they have already caused delays in the payment of some tranches, and we know that one of the tranches will be provided at the end of March,” said Luis Montenegro.
“I hope there will be no problem fulfilling obligations that remain solely dependent on the government in power” to get the next amount of money, he added, speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels after a roughly 15-minute meeting with Ursula. von der Leyen, leader of the organization and also head of the European People’s Party (EPP) list for the European elections.
Luis Montenegro said he referred to the head of the commission “specific issues, such as trying to compensate for delays in the execution of the PRR.”
“This was one of the issues that was discussed in our conversation today, and it will be fundamental to our actions once we take over the government. Sometimes some dossiers give a very optimistic outlook, and this is one of them. of them, [mas] the truth is that there are delays that have never been recovered and there is also a desire that I be able to use this increase in funding to be able to increase our economic activity, to have a longer growth cycle and to be able to attract and retain talent in Portugal,” he listed.
Luís Montenegro also pledged, “as the new government, to increase the executive capacity beyond that which Portugal has had in recent years and therefore, through this, to maintain a very close relationship with the European Commission.”
The prime minister-designate is in Brussels to attend the EPP summit. After meeting outgoing Prime Minister António Costa to exchange greetings, Luis Montenegro will later meet with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, also from PPE.
Last December, the European Commission announced that Portugal had failed to meet two targets and the target for the third and fourth installments and was therefore moving forward with a positive preliminary assessment.
At that time, the institution mobilized 2.46 billion euros in grants and loans through the third and fourth installments of the PRR and retained the other part (about 800 million euros).
Since Portugal has not met three of the 47 benchmarks and targets associated with the third and fourth installments of the subsidy, it must now do so within the additional deadline set by the European Commission, especially regarding the reform of professional practices.
The Portuguese PRR amounts to €22.2 billion in grants and loans and covers 57 reforms and 284 investments.
To date, Portugal has already received 6.12 billion euros in grants and 1.65 billion euros in loans, with a plan implementation rate of 28%, according to European Commission data for December 2023.
In total, the European Commission has already provided EU Member States with €225 billion under the Recovery and Recovery Facility, which funds the RRP.
The MRR, with a total budget of €800 billion, was created in February 2021 to help countries overcome the economic impact of Covid-19.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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