On Monday, Mario Centeno said the cost of TAP’s 2020 bailout could be assessed “in a few years” and that the company’s collapse would have repercussions for Portugal that Lufthansa would not have for Germany.
“I want TAP, in the context of starting the recovery process that has been achieved with this loan, to have a future. We will all be able to assess the cost in a few years, we can find more than others, that it is high, it is certainly important for Portugal,” Mario Centeno told the airline’s commission of inquiry at a hearing that lasted about three hours.
When asked by IL MP Bernardo Blanco about the support provided by Lufthansa is proportionately less than that of TAP due to the covid-19 pandemic, Mario Centeno noted that although Lufthansa weighs less in German government spending than TAP in Portuguese, “TAP weighs much more in Portugal’s GDP than Lufthansa in Germany’s GDP.”
“The rout [colapso] in a company like TAP in Portugal would have consequences for Portugal that Lufthansa would not have for Germany,” he stressed.
Regarding the recent withdrawal of support from Lufthansa, the former finance minister said that “the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union concern the legality of decisions of the European Commission, which is why it is so conservative and careful in deciding cases of this kind”, noting that “history is not a history of losing cases in these cases.”
Mario Centeno was also asked about the discussions that culminated in the €1,200 million emergency aid decision approved by the European Commission on June 10, 2020, but rejected by TAP at a general meeting later that month, following his departure from government on June 15.
The current governor of Banco de Portugal said his stance in all negotiations is “humility”, rejection of “the only paths” from which there is “usually no way out”.
Regarding the payment of 55 million euros to former shareholder David Nieleman for leaving the airline, Centeno reiterated that neither he nor his secretaries of state at the time “took part in the meetings leading to the acquisition of private equity stakes in TAP” as this process occurred after his departure from the government.
He also explained that prior to his departure from the government, the state’s participation in TAP had not increased, as it was assumed that it would retain the same shareholder structure.
When asked by Chega Filipe Melo deputy about the alleged meeting on December 9, 2015 with the then president of Parpública, Pedro Ferreira Pinto, Mario Centeno said that there was no record of this meeting in his office, which, by the way, was on his birthday.
The former president of Parpública said at a hearing before the parliamentary commission on the economy that on that day he had a meeting with the then ministers Pedro Marquez, Mario Centeno and the secretaries of state and heads of cabinets, in which he handed over the dossier, all the information requested about TAP and its work , answered “20 minutes of questions” and made herself available to provide more information in the future.
According to him, he was never asked about the subject again, which he said caused him “surprise”.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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