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The Government expects to use almost a quarter of the 12.9 billion euros in subsidies that will be received from the European Union (EU) to respond to social vulnerabilities, that is, in the National Health Service (SNS), housing and social policies . The executive began this Monday to reveal to the parties the general lines of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, having presented a document in which it is indicated how much he wants to allocate to each block of policies, of the funds that he will receive in full. Responding to vulnerabilities (included in the resilience pillar) consumes € 3.2 billion, the bulk of the grant package.
According to the document, to which the PUBLIC had access, the Recovery and Resilience Plan is divided into three main axes: resilience measures; climate transition; and digital transition. For the first axis, 7.2 billion euros, for the second 2.7 billion euros and for the third, 3 billion euros. It is the first time that the Government assumes how it wants to distribute the 12.9 billion euros that Portugal will receive until 2026.
In the same document it can be understood, within each axis, the type of policies that will benefit from these funds, which, since they are subsidies, will not have to be repaid – unlike loans (another package of 15,700 million euros destined for reforms deep but imply an increase in public debt and that, for this reason, the Executive prefers to leave a second plane).
And it is in the allocation of funds by policy block that it is possible to see where most of the spending is going. In response to social vulnerabilities, the Government wants to use 3.2 billion euros, almost a quarter of the total amount of subsidies. Measures aimed at increasing productive potential receive 2.5 billion euros and those that serve to increase competitiveness and territorial cohesion are entitled to 1.5 billion euros.
The digital transition -second axis to receive more funds, for a total of 3 billion euros- will have 1.8 billion euros for the Public Administration, 700 million euros for the digital school and 500 million euros for the 4.0 program it serves to help companies adapt to the digital world.
Finally, the climate transition axis, which will receive 2.7 billion euros in grants from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, distributed as follows: 975 million euros for sustainable mobility; 925 million euros for decarbonisation and circular economy; and € 800 million for energy efficiency and renewables.
The Government today details how it wants to use the 12.9 billion euros it will receive in grants, but this is only part of the almost 58 billion euros to which Portugal will be entitled in the next decade through a set of financial instruments that will be allocated an average value of around 6 billion euros per year, a milestone that the head of government has already considered a challenge since, in the best years, Portugal managed to execute 3 billion euros.
In other words, there is a set of projects, even with high visibility, such as the construction of hospitals, which is not part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan because it was already planned before and with funding assigned through another instrument. But there are others, such as hospital equipment, that will be included in this plan, which has a very specific objective: to respond to the social, energy and digital vulnerabilities that arose with the health crisis.
Where does most of the Plan go?
The Recovery and Resilience Plan will have a first version that the Government expects to present on October 14. The next day, this draft goes to Brussels, with Portugal being the obligation to close the plan before April 2021, when it should have a completely finished Plan.
For now, the Government wants to reach a broad political consensus that guarantees the execution of the set of funds in the next decade, without interruptions and not to waste Community funds. This week will be especially intense in contacts with a view to understanding. Today and Tuesday, Costa meets with the parties and also with the Economic and Social Council – where employers and unions are located – and on Wednesday he will go to Parliament to debate the Plan.
For now, the details of the measures are not yet finalized, but it is already possible to have an idea of the policies that will be included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which serves as a response to the pandemic crisis and in which, therefore, not everything fits. , as demonstrated by the executive leader last week when he received from Costa Silva the Strategic Vision for the Recovery of Portugal for 2030.
Thus, within the axis of resilience, it is in the response block to social vulnerabilities that is the bet that consumes the most resources. And what fits here? For now, the Government only says that they will be here: the National Integrated Continuous Care Network and the National Palliative Care Network; hospital equipment; First aid; the restructuring of the social housing stock; a new generation of social equipment and responses; and integrated programs to eliminate pockets of poverty in metropolitan areas. That is, social networks, housing and social responses.
