The Portuguese are the biggest supporters of the bazooka created by the EU.

The Portuguese are the European citizens who are most supportive of the solution found by the European Union to help member states cope with the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, “NextGenerationEU”, also known as “the bazooka”, shows a poll that it published on Tuesday.

According to the Eurobarometer on the NextGenerationEU instrument, a €800 billion fund approved on 27 July 2020, centered on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, which funds the Recovery and Resilience Plans (PRR) of each Member State. , the Portuguese are the EU citizens who most agree with the approach taken to respond to the crisis, both at the European and national level.

The survey, conducted last November and now published, shows that 86% of Portuguese consider a negotiated solution, whereby member states provide financial support to each other through the joint issuance of debt, is a “good approach” for the EU, and 84% consider it positive for the country, in both cases the highest values ​​among 27.

On average, 74% of Europeans surveyed approve of bazooka as a suitable approach for Europe, and 70% consider it positive for their country. Values ​​vary in the first case from 86% in Portugal to 66% in Sweden, and nationally from 84% in Portugal to 56% in Finland.

However, when asked if they believed that the EU recovery plan would have a positive impact on their personal or professional situation, the Portuguese were less enthusiastic, even below the community average: only 8% answered “yes, a lot”, and 26% who expressed the belief that “yes, a little” (against 9% and 26%, respectively, on average in the EU).

The Portuguese PRR includes investments and reforms in 20 thematic components with 13.9 billion euros in grants and 2.7 billion euros in loans.