Brussels receives 2 billion in subsidies to Portugal. Total is 13 billion

A new calculation by the European Commission, published today, eliminates two billion euros from the amount of subsidies that Portugal will receive under the Post-Crisis Recovery Fund, reducing the total to 13 billion euros.

Last July, in a historic European Council, European leaders reached an agreement to reactivate the community economy after the COVID-19 crisis in a total package of 1.82 billion euros, which includes a Recovery Fund of 750 billion euros. .

At that time, the Prime Minister, António Costa, indicated that Portugal would receive 15.3 billion euros from the Recovery Fund in non-reimbursable transfers in the coming years, as agreed at the time.

However, a new calculation published today by the community executive and consulted by the Lusa agency establishes that Portugal should, before, collect about 13.2 billion euros (at 2018 prices) in subsidies.

Of this amount, 9.1 billion euros will be transferred between 2021 and 2022 and the rest (4.1 billion euros) in 2023.

The community executive points out, in the information released, that the new calculations by member state take into account what was agreed by European leaders last July.

The institution also explains that the second tranche (30% in 2023) was calculated based on the most recent economic forecasts.

Last week, in Brussels, the government said that Portugal wants to be one of the first EU countries to have a recovery and resilience plan “presented, discussed and approved” to access European funds from the beginning of 2021.

“Our objective is very simple: to establish the best possible conditions, both from a programmatic point of view and from a practical point of view, so that the dialogue with the European Commission allows the plan to be among the first to be presented, the first to introduce oneself. discussed and among the first to be approved, “said Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, speaking to journalists in Brussels.

Augusto Santos Silva intervened after meeting with the Executive Vice Presidents of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis and Frans Timmermans, Commissioner Elisa Ferreira (Cohesion and Reforms) and Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, in the context of the preparation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan .

This is the strategic document in which Portugal must give an account of the reforms and investments that it intends to carry out using the ‘slice’ that it will obtain from the post-covid-19 EU Recovery Fund, agreed last July.

The minister said, on the occasion, that among the priorities of the Portuguese executive are issues such as strengthening health systems, investment in infrastructure and industrial and economic capacity, increasing territorial cohesion and the ability to compete internationally, the realization of the climate transition and the reform of public administration.