A new calculation published today has seen the European Commission reduce grants coming Portugal’s way in post coronavirus recovery funding by €2 billion.
Only two months ago, a jubilant prime minister António Costa returned from an historic EU summit with the promise of €15.3 billion in possible grants from Recovery Fund (click here). This however is now down to €13 billion, due to a recalculaton according to prices from 2018.
That said, Portugal is bullish over the prospects.
Says ECO online, the government wants Portugal to be one of the first EU countries to present its ‘recovery and resilience’ plan, in order to be able to accede to European funding right at the start of 2021.
Foreign affairs minister Augusto Santos Silva told journalists on a trip to Brussels last week: “Our objective is simple: to establish the best possible conditions – both programmatically and practically – so that dialogue with the European Commission allows our plan to be among the first to be presented, the first to be discussed and among the first to be approved”.
Says ECO, if all goes according to plan, the first tranche of €9.1 billion could be transferred in 2021, with the remaining amount of €4.1 coming available in 2023.
The ‘plan’ is the one presented earlier this week by oil company boss António Costa Silva which still has to be ratified by parliament (click here).
Article written by Natasha Donn, by kind permission of The Algarve Resident
