Farmers and civil construction industrialists are concerned about the level of implementation of the PRR, at a time when Portugal is waiting for the “green light” from Brussels” for reprogramming, but the Government remains confident.
Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) continues at 17% of the milestones and targets agreed with the European Union and payments to direct and final beneficiaries amounted to 2.410 million euros up to 16 August, which corresponds to 14% of total.
“Execution is low, which is concerning for two reasons. […] Being low at this height means that something is failing. It is necessary to identify the reason and to have more information and transparency. The second because the program has to be implemented by the end of 2026, and if we continue at this pace there is money that simply will not be used, which is unacceptable”, said the secretary general of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP) , Luís Mira, in response to Lusa.
Farmers therefore want to identify what is causing such a “disappointing” execution rate, so that the necessary changes can be implemented to speed it up.
Luís Mira also considered that the plan has an “excessive use of funds channeled to the public sector, constituting itself as a way to increase the budget availability of the State”.
Thus, as he defended, it was never truly seen as a recovery plan for the Portuguese economy.
With regard to agriculture in particular, CAP regrets that the sector has practically been left out of the PRR, contrary to what happened, for example, in Spain.
Added to this is the “lack of structured public policies” for agriculture and the rural world, which are currently facing problems such as drought and fires.
“In Portugal, unlike Spain, there is a blatant lack of vision about the economic, environmental, social, cultural and territorial cohesion role that agriculture plays”, he stressed, recalling that Madrid will inject 25.000 million euros to solve the problem from water.
In Portugal, the issue of water “is swept under the rug”, he pointed out, stressing that the drought will have negative consequences for the viability and competitiveness of agriculture, which, consequently, will seriously affect the economy and society.
Luís Mira was also not confident that the reprogramming of the PRR will solve these problems, taking into account that the general features of the program remain unchanged.
“The contribution of the PRR to the recovery and resilience of agriculture is little more than nil and this is a disappointment for those who live off the land and a loss for the country”, he concluded.
In turn, the president of the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN), Manuel Reis Campos, said that both execution and the amount of payments “reinforce the feeling that it is necessary to imprint greater speed in the entire process public procurement”.
Reis Campos noted that European funds play an "essential role" for the country's development and, therefore, funds cannot be wasted and the timetable must be "scrupulously respected".
Companies in the construction sector are grappling with the lack of manpower, which was estimated at 80.000 workers, and the evolution of the prices of raw materials, energy and construction materials.
Specifically, with regard to public works, according to the association, “abnormally low” prices stand out among the main problems.
AICCOPN noted, in this context, the “launch of public tenders with an inadequate base price, that is, with limit values that do not have as reference the increase in costs that (…) characterize the activity in recent years, causing delays and difficulties in realization of investments”.
Regarding the reprogramming of the PRR, the president of this association said that the increase in subsidies and the additional mobilization of loans is based on the reinforcement of national ambition, with funds for new projects, changes in the economic situation, disruptions in supply chains and the labor shortage.
“In this way, the reprogramming of available European funds will not be a reason for delays or inefficient implementation of projects on the ground, but, quite the contrary, it will certainly allow for a better implementation of the investments already planned and the launch of new tenders”, he said. .
Questioned by Lusa, the Ministry of the Presidency, which is in charge of European funds, pointed out that the Government is confident that the PRR, together with Portugal 2030 and other measures that make up the National Reform Program 2023, will allow continuity to the advances achieved, “through sustained economic growth and in convergence with the EU [European Union], strengthening the competitiveness of companies, accelerating the energy transition and pursuing policies to combat poverty”.
The Ministry led by Mariana Vieira da Silva also guaranteed that the Government "is fully committed and focused on the good execution of the PRR", with the country showing that it is capable of fulfilling what was promised.
“Among the 27 EU countries, Portugal became, in February this year, the fifth country to receive the second disbursement”, he highlighted.
The Presidency also noted that, despite the implementation being taking place “in line with expectations”, the reprogramming proposal stems from the added challenges that the war in Ukraine and inflation posed to the EU in terms of implementing PRR investments.
Additionally, the Government decided to reinforce human resources, simplify public procurement, reduce bureaucracy in some processes and speed up financing payments.
At the end of May, Portugal submitted a proposal for the reprogramming of the PRR to Brussels, whose allocation exceeds 22.000 million euros. With the reprogramming, Portugal will now have 41 more measures, 11 reforms and 30 investments.
The total amount of the PRR (16.644 million euros – initial value), managed by the Structure of the Mission to Recover Portugal, is divided by its three structuring dimensions – resilience (11.125 million euros), climate transition (3.059 million euros) and digital transition (2.460 million euros).
Of the total allocation, approximately 13.900 million euros correspond to grants and 2.700 million euros to loans.
This plan, which runs until 2026, aims to implement a series of reforms and investments with a view to recovering economic growth.
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