This Thursday, the PSD president asked the European institutions to pay more attention to the “total absence” of structural reforms in Portugal, as well as to the “very low” implementation of the PRR and compliance with European energy interconnections already in place in 2014 have been agreed.
In his speech to the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party (PPE), Luís Montenegro stated that the government in Portugal shows “a total lack of promotion of structural reforms”.
“An absence that the European institutions have not denounced says something about how the European institutions are dealing with the current situation (…) I have not heard the European Commission be so concerned about this in a long time,” warned the president of PSD.
Montenegro has also asked the EPP to demand “without lukewarmness and frontality” the implementation of the energy interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and France, especially the completion of the electrical connections already envisioned since 2014 by the Pyrenees.
“The socialist governments of Portugal and Spain are teaming up with French President Macron for an operation of pure political cosmetics. Europe doesn’t even need more pictures, more summits, more music to our ears, we don’t need more words, we need action and that the European Commission fulfills what has been written since 2014, including the funding sources for the project,” he defended.
The PSD president defended this Thursday that the previous interconnection deal is “strategic so that Europe doesn’t make mistakes like Nordstream 2”.
Finally, Montenegro also requested “special attention” from the PPE and European institutions for monitoring national recovery programs, drawing criticism of Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan.
“In Portugal, unfortunately, these instruments are, on the one hand, overly committed to the sphere of public investment, sometimes even to supply the inadequate credits of the public administration, instead of aiming as it should be at creating wealth and restoring the economic fabric,” he complained.
Luís Montenegro stressed that “the President of the Republic himself has warned the government on several occasions” about this issue and pointed out three problems for the national PRR.
“The implementation of this program is very late, it is very low, it is mainly focused on the public part rather than private investment, and the PRR lacks alignment with the cohesion funds for 2030,” he said.
Before the PPE Political Assembly, Montenegro emphasized the Europeanist character of the PSD, “out of conviction” and “because they represent the dominant sentiment of Portuguese society”.
“This new phase we have started in the PSD in Portugal corresponds to a spirit of cooperation with the leadership of the PPE. We are going to give a new prime minister to the PPE in Europe in the next parliamentary elections,” he predicted. .
Source: DN
