Lisbon, Oct. 1, 2026 (Lusa) - The government approved a funding package of up to €200 million on Thursday to ensure that Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) works are still underway.
«What was decided today in the cabinet is that we will ensure that the works currently underway will continue,» said economy minister Manuel Castro Almeida at the briefing following the cabinet meeting, which took place in Guarda on Thursday.
According to the minister, the works may be completed provided that the respective beneficiaries commit to finishing them by 31 December 2027.
Earlier, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced the decision to «approve a €200 million allocation within the State Budget to say that unfinished projects can be brought to a successful conclusion».
Montenegro said the main topic of the cabinet meeting was assessing the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Programme (RRP) and continuing the investments and commitments made, assuring that, as the government had promised, «everything will be completed and fulfilled».
«To this end, there is a provision of up to €200 million, though I hope we will not even need the full amount,» Castro Almeida later stated.
The decision covers projects that were withdrawn from the RRP before the implementation deadline and works that remained in the programme but were not fully completed within the scheduled period.
These include schools, health centres, nurseries and projects run by private social solidarity institutions (IPSS), as the minister explained.
To allow the projects to continue, the ‘Recuperar Portugal' Task Force and the beneficiaries will need to amend the contracts, extending the completion deadline to 31 December 2027, he explained.
Beneficiaries who have not completed the works by the originally scheduled deadline will also retain the funds already received, provided they commit to the new deadline, he added.
The cabinet also decided to implement monitoring, evaluation and audit mechanisms for RRP investments, which will remain in force until 31 December 2028.
According to Montenegro, these mechanisms are also intended to detect any ‘irregular' behaviour and to combat ‘fraud and the misuse of funding' made available.
On Tuesday 29 September, Portugal submitted its tenth and final RRP payment request to the European Commission, amounting to €4.672 billion. The request includes the final 96 of the plan's 379 milestones and targets still awaiting validation by the European Commission.
If the assessment is favourable, Portugal will complete the RRP disbursements, totalling €21.905 billion. To date, Portugal has received €17.233 billion in relation to the nine previous payment requests.
Castro Almeida said he expected to receive the final funds in December.
Montenegro recalled that, in April 2024, when almost half of the RRP's implementation period had elapsed, the implementation rate was below 20%, stating that it had been necessary to speed up implementation, simplify procedures and reschedule the plan.
In the review presented today, Castro Almeida also highlighted, amongst the RRP's achievements, almost 500 healthcare facilities, 32,000 homes, 89 schools, 379 specialist technology centres and around 100,000 homes refurbished to improve energy efficiency.
SCR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
