The President of the Republic (PR) announced this Wednesday that he, accompanied by the Prime Minister, will visit at the end of this month and mid-March to review ongoing or completed works resulting from the application of funds from the PRR (Recovery Plan and Resilience) . The visits, he also said, will be made “to show a very large bet on the performance of the PRR”.
Speaking to journalists yesterday in Belém, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled that “two years ago he [António Costa] he came to present the PRR with the various members of government responsible for the funds at the time, and now he comes here [na próxima semana] to show the state of affairs”.
“The implementation is progressing in many respects. The Prime Minister has visited various works, but what is happening in terms of implementation is still little due to this administrative procedure. 2023 is the year to accelerate this implementation.”
Asked about the news that the European Commission has disbursed the second tranche of €1.8 billion from the Portuguese PRR, the President of the Republic replied that “the use of European funds is expected to continue and accelerate”. “The implementation is moving forward in many ways, the Prime Minister has visited several works, but what is being done in terms of implementation is still little because of this administrative procedure,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, insisting that “2023 is the year to speed up implementation.”
As he added, the Prime Minister has “already said that he has made a very important decision, which is this: not to wait for the European Commission’s decision next year on the extension of deadlines and to move forward with what can be done.” “.
Now “if that means it costs more than it would cost if it went up to the year – as you know production costs are still very high – then the government is willing to resort to the European loans where they are entitled The idea is to have a high execution rate, the highest possible for European funds. It seems good to me,” he saluted.
PSD leader Luís Montenegro noted that he “fully accompanies” the “concern” of the president of the republic. “It is true that the President of the Republic, we must recognize him, has been very demanding and repeated several times in the warning he has given to the government that the PRR is being implemented very slowly and that the effects of these many millions of euros, are 18.2 billion euros, they do not reach the real economy,” the PSD leader emphasized during a visit to Gouveia.
Source: DN
