Marques Mendes insists that there was serious negligence on the part of the Government in the execution of the PRR – Community funds

Social-democratic commentator Luís Marques Mendes reiterated this Monday that there are delays in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which will lead to Brussels withholding 2.77 billion euros from the fifth disbursement request, which could be requested from the end of March.

“Knowing that the Government was going into administration, it should have anticipated the approval of the diplomas that were mandatory to guarantee that payment. Whether it was in the Council of Ministers, or in the AR, until the day of its dissolution. It is usual in these circumstances and it was the that was done in other matters”, says Marques Mendes, in a statement sent to newsrooms, after the Government denied the statements made by the former PSD leader.

In his usual comment space on SIC and in the notes sent to Negócios, Marques Mendes had accused the outgoing Government of “negligence” for leaving diplomas unapproved, the approval of which is mandatory for Portugal to receive the fifth tranche of the PRR. According to Marques Mendes, this “negligence” led Brussels to withhold 2.77 billion euros to which Portugal is entitled.

In the note sent to the newsrooms, Luís Marques Mendes insists that what he said previously “is completely true”. “For weeks or months, the amount of 2.775 billion euros relating to the fifth disbursement of the PRR will be held in Brussels. The proof, moreover, is that the Government did not even present the corresponding payment request to the European Commission. It is a fact so obvious, so obvious, that it cannot be denied”, he explains.

Among the diplomas that remained to be approved was the reform of public administration, the proposed law of which was approved this Monday in the last Council of Ministers of this Executive, when it was expected to be approved by the end of last year. This diploma includes the proposal for the transfer and concentration of Ministries at the headquarters of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, on Avenida João XXI in Lisbon.

According to Marques Mendes, the Government “had time to approve all the diplomas essential to receiving the funds in question, including the issues that would require legislative proposals”. This is because “the Assembly of the Republic was only dissolved on the 15th of January” and, “between the 7th of November, the date of the start of the crisis and the 15th of January, the date of the dissolution, there was enough time to approve what was known to be indispensable in order not to there are delays in payments”, he argues.

In view of this, he reiterates: “If this diligence was not taken, there was serious negligence.”