The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, affirms that Brussels is prepared for any scenario when it comes to the evaluation of the State Budget for 2024 (SO24), despite the political instability in Portugal.
Dombrovskis spoke, this Thursday afternoon, at the end of the Ecofin meeting, in Brussels, together with the Spanish Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, and both were asked if the current situation in Portugal could affect the absorption of funds from the Plan Recovery and Resilience (PRR).
The Spanish minister believes that political instability will have no consequences, taking into account that “there are always elections and changes of government in European countries, and therefore it is a fact that must be integrated into all plans.”
Calviño gives the Spanish example: “The experience we had with the implementation of the PRR in Spain is that the pace of implementation did not decrease at all during 2023, when we had two elections underway.”
“Government discussions are ongoing and we verified that (…) there was no delay or slowdown during this year, despite the different electoral processes that were carried out,” said Calviño.
However, the vice president of the European Commission affirms that “contact with the Portuguese authorities” is necessary to understand the plans and the way “they intend to proceed with the budget process.”
With the OE24 project already delivered to Brussels, but without guarantees that it will be approved, just a few weeks before the European Commission’s evaluation, Valdis Dombrovskis affirms that Brussels is prepared for any scenario.
“We know that there are ways to continue with budget processes, and with the evaluation of budget plans, also in scenarios of change of Government, whether planned or unexpected,” highlighted the vice president of the European Commission.
Source: TSF
