Lisbon, Feb. 2, 2021 (Lusa) - The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on Tuesday ratified the increase in the European Union's (EU) own resources and congratulated Portugal as one of the Member States to do so, stressing the importance of this decision.

De Sousa's ratification was announced public through a note on his official website, after the Portuguese parliament approved this European decision on Friday, with no votes against, through a draft resolution presented by the government.

"The president of Portugal today ratified Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2020/2053 of 14 December 2020 on the system of the European Union's own resources, welcoming the fact that Portugal is one of the first member states to do so", the note said, which highlights the current context of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union.

In the same note, De Sousa stressed "the importance of this amendment to the Decision on the European Union's Own Resources", which will allow the European Commission to raise finance on the markets, with the guarantee of the Community budget and, therefore, in solidarity with all the Member States, to be able to implement the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is essential for the implementation of financial aid to help us emerge from the social and economic crisis that Covid-19 has caused".

The increase in the European Union's own resources is an essential step if the European Commission is to finance the €750 billion so-called "bazooka" of European support to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday, this European decision was approved in parliament with votes in favour by Socialists, Social-Democrats and People-Animal-Nature party and abstentions from the other benches.

The ratification of the decision on new own resources by all the 27 Member States' parliaments is indispensable for the European Commission to go to the markets to finance the "Next Generation EU" recovery fund.

In the debate preceding this vote, foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva stressed that "the sooner" Member States complete their ratification procedures "the sooner businesses and families will be entitled to the investments needed to carry out the reforms".

Portugal, which chairs the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of this year, hopes that these ratification procedures for own resources "can be concluded this spring", the minister said.

Worth €750 billion, the main instrument of this fund is the European Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, which will distribute a total of €672.5 billion in grants and loans, of which Portugal will receive €15.3 billion in grants. Member States will only be able to access the mechanism once their national investment plans have been approved by the European Union.

European legislation on own resources needs to be amended to finance the fund through the European Commission's debt issue. This requires a unanimous decision by all Member States in a national ratification process.

IEL/ADB // ADB.

Lusa