“The information I have is that yes, yesterday [Friday] the reprogramming of Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) was approved,” announced Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento in an interview.
In this interview, which will be published in full on Sunday, the minister noted that the community executive’s ‘green light’ “makes the execution [of the national plan] simpler and faster.”
“We had some projects that were difficult to execute as they involved public works — and we know how there is a shortage in construction capacity in Portugal — and, therefore, by reprogramming to other areas […], this gives greater confidence [to the Government] in the execution” of the PRR, given the “very limited deadlines” of the program until the end of 2026, elaborated Joaquim Miranda Sarmento.
He exemplified: “For example, there is a reprogramming of around 300 million euros for the purchase of equipment for hospitals and another, I believe, of almost 200 million for equipment for research centers linked to universities and polytechnics.”
Thus, with the revision, the Portuguese PRR now includes “investments that, given the existing public procurement rules and the availability in the market, are easier and faster to execute than the other works.”
These other works “have shifted to Portugal 2030 and the State Budget,” added Joaquim Miranda Sarmento in the interview, exemplifying that the projects involved are the works at the Fridão dam on the Tâmega River and the construction on the purple metro line in Lisbon between Loures and Odivelas.
These projects, therefore, “will be executed, but at a slightly slower pace, as it was not possible to complete their execution by mid-2026, and they will be executed with funds from Portugal 2030 and with State Budget funds,” he explained.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento also mentioned that “by the end of the year, there are still two disbursement requests” that the country will make to the community executive.
“So, we are probably talking about September and then closer to the end of the year,” the Finance Minister noted, assuring that the European Commission has never expressed concerns regarding the execution of the PRR due to the political crisis in Portugal.
In total, the plan amounts to 22.2 billion euros, with 16.3 billion euros in grants and 5.9 billion euros in loans from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, covering 376 investments and 87 reforms.
Currently, the country has already received 8.49 billion euros in grants and 2.9 billion euros in loans, with the plan’s execution rate standing at 32%.
