Mortágua says that “Portugal is at the tail of Europe” in terms of Research & Development. You’re right?
Regarding the proposal presented this afternoon in Parliament by the Government, to increase tax incentives in research and business development, Mariana Mortágua wanted to focus on the substance of the measure: “It turns out that the only substance in this proposal, when it is well squeezed, are the tax benefits. The PS Government resigns from making industrial policy and understands that it not only has to adopt empty terms about supposed innovation and modernity, but also makes policy the way the Liberal Initiative wants to make it.”
“It is mandatory that taxpayers’ money is being used, for example, to finance the Web Summit. But then let’s see what matters: what is the percentage of public money spent on Research and Development in Portugal? Portugal is at the tail of Europe, we are behind Cyprus, Croatia, Greece. We are ashamed of public investment in R&D, while we have the most attractive tax regimes in Europe for beginners“, mocked the deputy. Is it correct?
In the year 2021, show data from the eurostatthe European Union spent 328 million euros on research and development, “an increase of 6% compared to the previous year (310 million euros). Compared to 2011, there was an increase of 43.9%”.
In Portugal, in numerical terms, were applied, in 2021, 3.6 billion euros to R&D, which compares with the 3.2 million invested in 2020. The list is led by Sweden, Austria and Belgium and Portugal appears in 15th place, that is, more or less in the middle of the table. Still in absolute terms, Cyprus (208 million euros), Croatia (725 million euros) and Greece (2.6 million euros) had lower investments than Portugal.
If we look at investment in R&D as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the data show, for the entire European Union, “a decrease from 2.31% in 2020 to 2.27% in 2021”. Among the Member States of the European Union, the highest weight of R&D in 2021 was registered in Sweden (3.36%), followed by Belgium (3.2%) and Austria (3.19%). At least six Member States recorded investment in R&D below 1% of their GDP, as was the case with Romania (0.47%), Malta (0.63%), Latvia (0.69%), Bulgaria ( 0.77%), Cyprus (0.87%) and Slovakia (0.93%).
In 2021, Portugal invested around 1.66% of its GDP in R&D, thus placing it once again in the middle of the table (14th place), and above both Cyprus (0.87%) and Croatia (1, 24%), or Greece (1.45%).
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