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  • 28-01-2021 12:32

EU/Presidency: National recovery plans should focus on e-government - minister


Brussels, Jan. 28, 2021 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister of economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, on Thursday urged European Union member states to focus on the digitisation of public administration within the framework of their EU-funded post-pandemic recovery plans, saying that the private sector could serve as an example.

"If today we demand from our banks, from our service providers, the capacity and ease of relationship with digital technologies, we can expect no less from our administration and, in that sense, we encourage national recovery plans to have important components with the reinforcement of public administration skills in this field", the minister said.

Testifying by videoconference to the European Parliament's committee on industry, research and energy on the priorities of Portugal's presidency of the EU, the minister stressed the need to "ensure that public administrations in Europe are equal to the demands of the citizens and businesses of the twenty-first century.

"I am convinced that the way we are able to use our national plans to empower our public administrations for the new digital technologies will be critical," he stated.

That was a reference to the national recovery and resilience plans that the 27 member states must submit to Brussels in order to have access to the €750-billion 'NextGenerationEU' recovery fund approved by the European Council last July with a view to relaunching the EU economy in the wake of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The most important thing at this time is to be able, between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, to ensure that the regulations necessary for the immediate implementation of NextGenerationEU and the rapid adoption of recovery and resilience plans are in place," stressed Siza Vieira.

During the hearing, he assured the committee that "the Portuguese presidency, in the various council compositions in which it will be involved, will commit itself [to speeding up national plans' approval] because this is indeed a priority.

"Already in the February council we will try to have a discussion [on] how national plans should contribute to the objectives of the new European industrial strategy," he promised.

ANE/ARO // ARO.

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