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António Costa has already delivered the draft Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to the European Commission and the institution headed by Ursula von der Leyen has already realized that the document is “globally in line” with what Brussels intends.
The document to which Business had access requests, within the scope of the European Union Recovery Fund, a global amount of subsidies (non-reimbursable aid) of 13.9 billion euros (current prices) and contains some modifications to the allocation of funds compared to the version initially presented by the Executive. This figure includes a difference of about a billion euros more than in that first version, which explains why the amount refers to current prices and accounts for the inflation rate.
Corresponding to the three pillars established by the European Commission, the Government proposes the following distribution of funds: 7,449 million euros for the Resilience roadmap; 2,703 million for Climate Transition; and 2,651 for the digital transition.
It is in Climate Transition where the main difference is seen, with “sustainable mobility” seeing the increase in the allocation from 975 million euros to 1,032 million and the budget for “decarbonization and bioeconomy” falling from 925 million euros to 865 million.
In the rubrics for the Resilience and Digital Transition pillars there are minor but minor adjustments.
The explanation to reinforce sustainable mobility had already been advanced this Wednesday by António Costa, during the presentation of the draft of the PRR, in Gulbenkian.
The Government withdrew from the plan the “acquisition of railway rolling stock” as it is an investment that could be financed by the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFP) and has now included investments in the expansion of the Lisbon and Porto metro lines (up to Alcântara and Devesas, respectively).
However, as the companies advanced, the main change refers to the admission of the Government to compete for the loans granted by the European bazooka, a hypothesis that had previously been ruled out by the Prime Minister.
The Executive acknowledges using 4,295 million euros of soft loans to finance three investments: 2,745 million euros in the public housing stock, 1,250 million euros for business capitalization and financial resilience and 300 million euros for the purchase of railway rolling stock .
But first Lisbon awaits a clarification from Brussels to see if, using and using these means through the Development Bank, it is possible to prevent such loans from counting to aggravate public debt.
The government is already working with Brussels on the recovery plan
Following the handover of the PRR in Brussels this morning, the Prime Minister also spoke of the stalemate in the negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the recovery fund.
“I hope there will be a quick agreement,” António Costa said upon arrival at a European summit that, despite having Brexit as the main point on the agenda, will not stop addressing the file of the EU Recovery Fund.
Very happy to meet @antoniocostapm.
We will work together to make the best use of #NextGenerationEU money.you just presented your recovery and resilience plan.
But we are already acting now to save jobs: we will soon receive € 5.9 billion under SURE to keep people at work. pic.twitter.com/2afXInFdBv
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 15, 2020
António Costa confirmed that there are two “fundamental issues” that hinder an agreement and that refer to the increase in the ceiling of own resources so that the European Commission can contract the 750,000 million euros of European bazooka in the markets and also the regulation of the mechanism that It will condition the disbursement of funds on compliance with the rules of the rule of law.
After presenting yesterday the draft Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) in Lisbon, Costa delivered this document in Brussels this morning. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, “was delighted that we were, if not the first, one of the first [Estados-membros] to deliver “the implementation plan for the so-called next generation UE”.
The government leader pointed out that Lisbon is already working with the technical services of the Commission on the “eligibilities, amounts and priorities defined” in the PRR so that “everything is ready so that as soon as the resources are available they can begin to invest. And get to the real economy. “
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