Revised plan takes into account high inflation and impact of war
The European Commission has approved the revision of Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP, or PRR in Portuguese) today, which now amounts to €22.2 billion, a change that takes into account high inflation and the impact of the war.
“The European Commission today gave a positive assessment of Portugal’s amended recovery and resilience plan, which includes a chapter [of the energy package] REPowerEU. The plan now has a value of €22.2 billion in grants and loans and covers 44 reforms and 117 investments,” the EU executive said in a statement.
Brussels notes that “the changes made by Portugal to the initial plan are based on the need to take into account the high inflation recorded in 2022 and the disruptions in the supply chain caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which have made investments more expensive and caused delays“.
The amendment also takes into account the upward revision of the maximum grant allocation for the Recovery and Resilience Facility, from €13.9 billion to €15.5 billion.
“This upward revision is the result of the June 2022 update of the distribution key for RRM grants,” the European Commission told the press.
At the end of May, Portugal submitted its proposal for reprogramming its RRP to the European Commission, which now has an allocation of €22.2 billion.
Brussels should have assessed the amended plan by the end of July to see if it met the assessment criteria, but agreed with the Portuguese authorities to extend this date, hence today’s approval.
This amendment also includes the financial allocation from the European energy programme RepowerEU (€704 million), as well as the unused ‘Brexit’ adjustment reserve (€81 million).
The execution of the RRP remains at 17% of the milestones and targets agreed with Brussels.
So far, the country has received €4.07 billion in grants and €1.07 billion in loans.
Minister applauds “good news”
Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, has welcomed the announcement, describing it as “very good news for Portugal,” said Fernando Medina.
However, he said that the minister for the Presidency would make a “more in-depth” statement on the subject later today.
Source: LUSA
 today, which now amounts to €22.2 billion.){kind=link}