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  • 16-02-2021 12:49

EU/Presidency: Ecofin chair wants 27 totally focussed on national recovery plans


Brussels, Feb. 16, 2021 (Lusa) - Portugal's finance minister and chair of the Ecofin Council, João Leão, said on Tuesday that it is "time for [European Union] member states to focus all their attention" on presenting their national recovery and resilience plans.

In a statement at the 'entrance' to a virtual meeting of European Union finance ministers (Ecofin Council), which he is chairing from Lisbon, Leão pointed out that "an important item" on today's agenda is the recovery package for the European economy, which is now closer to fruition following last week's signing of the regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, its central pillar.

Considering that "this is a great achievement", Leão said that "we have kicked-off and now is the time for member states to channel all their attention to presenting plans that promote sustainable and socially inclusive growth".

The Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU, which runs throughout the first half of the year, has insisted on the need for member states to be quick in preparing and presenting the respective national plans, which must be negotiated with the European Commission and approved by the Council, so that the funds from the "NextGenerationEU" package may begin to be disbursed.

Portugal is one of the member states whose process is furthest ahead and last night put its preliminary and summarised version of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) out to public consultation for two weeks, hoping to deliver the final version to the EU executive within approximately three weeks,

To access post-crisis EU funds from Covid-19, Portugal's RRP provides for 36 reforms and 77 investments in the social, climate and digitalisation areas, totalling €13.9 billion in subsidies.

The document also provides for €2.7 billion in loans. Still, a government source said "it is not yet certain" that Portugal will resort to this Recovery and Resilience Mechanism aspect.

In the video message released before today's Ecofin Council, Leão also pointed out that, "Europe is still in the middle of a very intense third wave of the pandemic" and "global uncertainty is still very high", insisting therefore that it is necessary to continue to support the economy.

ACC/ADB // ADB.

Lusa