The European Commission is identifying with Portuguese authorities PRR projects that cannot be implemented by August 31 due to the storms to reallocate their funding to other purposes, including repair efforts.
“The Commission is working closely with the Portuguese authorities to identify projects that can no longer be completed by the August 31, 2026 deadline and reallocate funding from these projects to others, including repair and recovery efforts,” said a European Commission spokesperson in a written response to the Lusa agency.
According to this spokesperson, “based on this dialogue, Portugal will submit its revised Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which will then be evaluated.
“To date, we have not yet received the revised plan”, says the same spokesperson.
The European Commission’s response comes after, on Thursday night, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the community executive had given him the guarantee that Portugal “will not lose or return” any PRR funds for projects that were not carried out due to the storms, stating that “an ingenious solution” will be found.
In response to Lusa, the European Commission spokesperson reiterates “full solidarity with Portugal following the recent extreme storms, which caused victims, significant damage in several regions and economic impact across the country”.
“These are exceptional circumstances and our thoughts are with all the victims”, he states.
The spokesperson also recalls that, in this type of extreme situation, the European Union (EU) has several instruments to support Member States, ranging from the EU Solidarity Fund to the “possibility of redirecting existing resources, including cohesion policy funds”.
Last Thursday, Luís Montenegro said that the European Commission had expressed to him, during the European Council summit, “total availability” to find with the government “a solution, a path, the mechanisms that are necessary” so that Portugal “does not lose any of the financing and investment opportunities that were ongoing”.
“We leave here with the guarantee that, between the Government of Portugal and the team of the president of the European Commission, a way will be found to ensure that Portugal will not lose or return any funds that have to do with these projects that will not be completed during this period because it is manifestly impossible given the way they were affected by force majeure”, he said at the time.
On February 18, the Secretary of State for Planning and Regional Development, Hélder Reis, said he was negotiating with Brussels to redirect unused PRR investments to the areas of telecommunications and energy.
The government official highlighted that Brussels refused to postpone the PRR deadlines, but stated that the readjustment of investments with no chance of being implemented by August 31 is being worked on to reallocate these funds to achievable areas, which will allow “not to lose the PRR allocation”.
Hélder Reis exemplified that Braga’s BRT (Rapid Bus Transport) “will not materialize” within the deadline, so the Government will try to use these 76 million euros to finance telecommunications systems, namely the already announced SIRESP system available in all parish councils and other civil protection entities, firefighters and health units.
The official highlighted that a bet on satellite telecommunications systems (such as Starlink) is also being considered, and, at a time when there are populations still without electricity, “it is necessary to rethink the entire energy package in the country”, with the help of unused PRR resources, for the acquisition of batteries, accumulators and solar panels for public buildings.
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