The value of the works being carried out under the Recovery and Resilience Plan that will be suspended due to Storm Kristin will be around 500 million euros, said this Saturday, in Pombal, the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro de Almeida. The government official highlighted that Portugal will not lose European funding.
“Portugal will not lose any euro of PRR subsidies, despite the calamities. The objective is to ensure that all works being built with PRR financing will be completed”, assured the government official, in a press conference after a meeting with business associations, with the presidents of the Intermunicipal Communities of the regions affected by the calamity, among other entities, to assess the situation of State financial support, in Pombal, in the district of Leiria.
According to the minister, the money will be allocated to other investments that will be made “and the works will be financed in another way”.
Manuel Castro de Almeida reaffirmed that Portugal has been talking to the European Commission “in order to agree on the best procedure to ensure that the works will not stop, even if there is a decrease in support from the PRR”.
“This is work that will be completed next week”, when the Portuguese proposal will be presented to Brussels.
The European Commission is identifying with Portuguese authorities PRR projects that will not be able to 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.
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 reiterated “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 said.
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