Lisbon, April 28, 2026 (Lusa) – The government is set to approve and present the final version of the Portugal Transformation, Recovery and Resilience (PTRR) programme on Tuesday, three months after Storm Kristin and one year after the blackout that affected Portugal and Spain.
The document will be approved by the cabinet and, at 5.00 p.m., at a ceremony at the Pavilhão de Portugal in Lisbon, the prime minister will give a comprehensive presentation of the programme.
Last week, following an extraordinary cabinet meeting to review the final draft, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro confirmed that the programme’s global budget would be announced on Tuesday.
“It is a day to look ahead to the most immediate recovery from the consequences of the series of storms that ravaged Portugal in early 2026, to build greater resilience against extreme weather events such as those that have affected us and others that may occur, and to make the most of this increased investment, whether to recover or to build greater strength and resilience into our infrastructure,” he said at the time.
The prime minister announced the PTRR programme in February, in the aftermath of Storms Kristin, Leonardo and Marta, which caused 19 deaths and left several hundred people injured, homeless and displaced.
The government responded with measures totalling €3.5 billion in direct aid, payment deferrals and credit facilities to support the recovery of households and businesses in the hardest-hit areas.
However, business owners, farmers, local authorities and individuals continue to highlight the delays in payments and the bureaucratic nature of the procedures.
According to the latest figures, around 65,000 applications have been submitted for all the support schemes currently in place, covering agriculture, Social Security, the Tax Authority and the Employment Institute, including almost 36,000 applications for housing reconstruction.
According to Paulo Fernandes, the task force coordinator set up to oversee the reconstruction of the Central region, the total amount disbursed to individuals, businesses and public bodies is close to €2 billion.
On 13 April, the government applied for support from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), reporting losses of more than €5.3 billion due to the bad weather.
On 21 February, the cabinet approved the broad outlines of the programme, which will be based on three pillars: the first, on recovery, focused on responding to affected communities and businesses; the second, on resilience, focused on infrastructure and capacity for planning, prevention and adaptation.
This second pillar includes infrastructure in the areas of water, forestry, seismic safety, energy, communications and cybersecurity, and the reform of the INEM ambulance service, civil protection and the security of critical infrastructure.
The third pillar is transformation, aimed at integrating other ongoing reforms.
The programme has short-term objectives running until the end of 2026, medium-term objectives until the end of the legislative term (2029), and others with an implementation horizon extending beyond the current government’s term of office, until 2034, coinciding with the European Union’s next multiannual financial framework.
The creation of a Critical Emergency Energy Reserve Network and the assessment of a Disaster and Earthquake Fund are some of the measures envisaged, as is equipping all parishes with a generator, a SIRESP (Integrated Communications System for Security and Emergency Networks) telephone and satellite connections using Starlink data (high-speed, low-latency internet traffic).
In the preliminary document, the government refused to open new channels for the entry of immigrants, saying that the demand for labour should give priority to the domestic market and only then to other countries, relying exclusively on the consular network and the existing Regulated Labour Migration protocol, also known as the fast track for immigration.
SMA/MYAL // AYLS
Lusa
