Revision approved in Brussels. RRF increases to more than 22 billion euros

A few hours after the European Commission approved the reprogramming of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) presented by Portugal at the end of May, the Minister of the Presidency underlined that this is a "sign of confidence" that the country is on "the right track".

In a press conference on Friday (22 September), Mariana Vieira da Silva recalled that "at this moment the RRF is being fully executed and on the move" - "We have 86% of the total of the RRF in bids for tender opened and approved and 16% of the total of the RRF already paid to the recipients".

A schedule that is going as planned. "We have 17% of the total targets and milestones met. This is what was expected and now following the European Commission’s approval, and the approval to be given by ECOFIN of the RRF in October, the country is ready to request the third and fourth RRF refunds, i.e. all those envisaged to be concluded by 2023", the Minister charged with the Presidency stressed. 

Mariana Vieira da Silva recalled that with the approved reprogramming, the RRF will go from 16.644 billion to 22.216 billion euros. "An increase of around 2.4 billion euros in grants and 3.2 million euros in loans", which will enable the adaptation to the rising costs of the measures already defined, due to inflation, as well as new investments.

The RRF’s ambition grows with the reprogramming, and this faced with an already "pretty ambitious" initial plan. With very concrete reflections on the lives of the Portuguese: "We are talking about a highly significant reinforcement in areas such as the NHS, where we expanded to many more hospitals the support in acquiring new heavy equipment in the field of health, in schools, where we added 350 million euros for the recovery of schools, in science, where we support science and higher education institutions or the mobilising agendas, where we found the sums to support all the agendas that were rated positively".

This reprogramming "also has in its essence a strong element of enhancing territorial cohesion" with measures spread throughout the country. 

Mariana Vieira da Silva also underlined that the European Commission assessed as A rating "practically all of the elements" under assessment which transforms this approval into "a sign that we can be on the same trac, with a significant notion of the opportunity as well as the challenges that a plan of this scale poses on the country". And she guaranteed "a total focus" on meeting the plan with the destination being "what we all want deep down": "to modernise our economy, a stronger society, that is more cohesive and capable of facing crises and a strong territorial cohesion". In line with the goal of placing Portugal on the front line "for the two major transformations the economy will witness: climate change and the digital society".