Commissioner places Portugal “above average” in the execution of funds
“PPortugal is doing well in terms of lost funds, in terms of financial execution, which is what we were talking about. It’s above average [europeia]everything is running normally”, said the commissioner today, in Évora.
Elisa Ferreira spoke on the sidelines of the 3rd Plenary Meeting of INFORM EU, a European Union network of communication agents responsible for communicating European investments, which runs until Friday at Convento do Espinheiro, on the outskirts of the Alentejo city.
Questioned by journalists about the fact that Portugal, and in particular the Alentejo, are still waiting for the financial ‘package’ that will take effect from 2030, the European commissioner was keen to leave a message of tranquility: “There is no lack of funds” .
Accompanied by the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, Elisa Ferreira recalled that the implementation of the ‘package’ of funds in force since 2020 is still being completed.
“Portugal is one of the countries that performs very well, and therefore, in financial terms it is a country that is well above the European average, it does not pose any type of problem for us”, he stressed.
And, recalled the commissioner, the program from 2030 will be able to “also absorb projects that cannot be finalized” with the 2020 program, since, “as long as they have a certain size they can be continued”.
Thus, insisted Elisa Ferreira, “things in Portugal, with regard to buried funds, at least”, which she said were her competence “and the competence of the minister” of Territorial Cohesion, “are matters that are happening naturally” .
Questioned about the recent warning by the President of the Republic to the Minister of Territorial Cohesion about the execution of European funds and about the criticisms of the governor of the Bank of Portugal, Mário Centeno, that the investment financed by European funds is “dramatically” low, Elisa Ferreira declined to comment: “I think it’s a Portuguese matter and I shouldn’t comment”, he said.
“What is important is that there is a clarification between the recovered funds, which are the ERDF, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund”, which “have a calendar that goes from 2021 to 2027, with payments until 2029” , involving a total amount of “24 million euros”, he stressed, assuming that these are his responsibility and that of Ana Abrunhosa.
The Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) “is an exceptional project, they are not abandoned funds”, he said, indicating that it constitutes “a trip to the market by the Commission [Europeia] to create an instrument that would allow the economy to relaunch”, as if it were “an exceptional emergency instrument” and with “its own management”, in a global amount of 16 million euros.
In terms of isolated funds, which are supports with “a very strong territorial base, because the objective is to rebalance the development dynamics in the territory and in society, they are going perfectly”, he insisted, arguing that, for the future, attention should focus on the quality of the projects to be applied for and that Portugal “has the conditions to overcome” some “bureaucratic obstacles” that still persist.