Presidency Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva announced on Friday that the European Commission had approved Portugal’s second request for payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) submitted in September.
“The European Commission has just approved the second payment request we submitted in September”announced Mariana Vieira da Silva during the debate on sectoral policies in the Assembly of the Republic.
A little earlier, in her opening speech, the minister had indicated that she expected the European Commission to confirm this “soon”. “Portugal has successfully met the 20 milestones and targets associated with the second disbursement request submitted in September”🇧🇷
This concerns the funding application under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) that Portugal submitted to the European Commission in September for an amount of EUR 1.8 billion (excluding pre-financing), of which EUR 1.71 billion in grants and the rests in loans.
In her opening speech, Mariana Vieira da Silva stated that the government is committed to the objective of ensuring “the full use of European funds”.
“We have continued to implement the PRR under the terms it was envisaged, as confirmed by the European Commission with the validation in May of the fulfillment of the 38 milestones and targets set by the end of 2021, allowing the payment of the first disbursement”said.
Vieira da Silva also emphasized this with the European Commission’s validation “17% of the PRR’s milestones and objectives will be verified, which already have a relevant impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese, either directly or through the performance of companies or the improvement and expansion of public services”🇧🇷
“The government is aware of the pressure the situation puts on the implementation of the PRR, which has been quite demanding from the start”he defended, adding that in this context the executive “has acted on two fronts”.
“Acting first to minimize the impact of the situation on the various PRR projects, an example of which is the approval of the diploma that allows the review of prices in contracts and the extension of contract terms”he claimed.
On a second front, he continued, “taking advantage of the revision and reprogramming of the PRR to better adapt investment to the current constraints common to all European countries”.
In the first round of interventions by the parties, MP Paulo Rios de Oliveira, of the PSD, expressed concern about the implementation rates of the PRR.
“When we talk about execution rates, they’re absolutely anemic, they’re start-ups, the money isn’t reaching the companies, the money isn’t reaching the IPSS”criticized.
The Social Democrat also defended this “the PRR is a plan born with an original sin, which is the excessive allocation of resources to fulfill the promises of public investment they have made year after year, not to allow money to reach the economy and businesses from the grassroots and with philosophy”🇧🇷
Source: DN
