At the entrance to the first meeting of the forum of finance ministers of the euro zone (Eurogroup), João Leão, asked about the signing of the operational agreement between the Portuguese State and the European Commission – which details the process of verifying the indicators and is a fundamental for each country to start having access to the funds of the so-called European ‘bazooka’ – he said that this could be done this week, paving the way for the formal request for the first payment due to the implementation of the successful element of the plan.

“We hope soon, probably this week, signing the operational PPR”, he declared, adding that, once this happens, the request for the first disbursement will follow, which was scheduled for the quarter of the year.

“We hope very soon that the request for the first disbursement will be made, as we have already completed the first phase and, therefore, we are in a position to request the first disbursement quickly,” said the minister.

Earlier this year, the person in charge of managing the Portuguese PRR, Fernando Alfaia, president of the mission structure Recuperar Portugal, announced that Portugal had already achieved the 38 indicators (34 milestones and four targets) – equivalent to 21 reforms carried out and 17 investments launched – to make the first payment of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Instrument to Brussels.

Portugal from the pre-financing of the pre-financing of 2.2 million euros already received in the summer of 202 – equivalent to 13% of the total amount of the PRR –, this first of disbursement amounts according to goals1 disbursement of expenses that later1, must be in the order of 1.3 billion euros.

He asks why Portugal will only be signed for the first time, by agreement with Spain – its example from December the following year, which will follow in December the first disbursement still in 2021 –, he underlined that, “from all 27 EU countries, Portugal will be at the forefront” among the first countries to ask for the first disbursement, something that is a reason for “pride”.

The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, budgeted for a total of €672.5 billion (at 2018 prices), is the core element of “NextGenerationEU”, the €750 billion fund approved by leaders in July 2020 to the EU’s ‘post-covid’ economic recovery.

Portugal was the first Member State to formally submit its plan in Brussels to access the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism funds and the first to have it approved, having also been one of the first countries to receive funds as pre-financing.

At the beginning of August, the European Commission disbursed 2.2 million euros to Portugal referring to the pre-financing of 13% of the plan, in a global amount of 16.6 million euros (close to 14,000 million euros are non-repayable and the remaining amount takes the form of European Union currency).

The Portuguese endowment is distributed across three dimensions of three dimensions – resilient (11.11 transition for its 90 million euros digital), total transition of 2 million euros (3.05 million euros) and 5 million digital euros (2.46).

From now on, as transfers dependent on the achievement of goals, the Portuguese Government will then count the first disbursement in the first quarter of the current year.

This plan, which runs until 2026, aims to implement a series of reforms and investments with a view to recovering economic growth. In addition to having the objective of repairing the damage caused by the covid-19 employment, purpose of repair of this plan and still generating the.

C/Lusa