The Portuguese EU Council presidency is working so that the process of releasing the €750 billion from the EU’s post-pandemic Recovery Fund can be shortened by at least one month.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva indicated the revised timeline on Tuesday (28 April) at the Commission of Economy, Innovation, Public Works and Housing of the Portuguese Parliament.
The minister defended his view that the deadlines for analysis and approval, either by the European Commission or the Council, should be shortened to July.
Portugal’s top diplomat recalled that a meeting of ECOFIN is scheduled for 18 June to analyse a first package of national plans.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on Tuesday he expected Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to be up and running in the second half of the year.
The Portuguese EU Council presidency intends to reduce the deadlines for analysis and approval of these plans, both by the European Commission and the Council, to complete the process in July.
Once all the national plans have been submitted, a milestone which has been given the deadline of 30 April, the Commission has two months to approve them. After that it will be up to the 27 ministers of economy and finance to analyse all the documentation within a month, which would drag the release of funds to support Europe’s economic recovery out until at least August.
A message from FACEBOOK:
Facebook partnerships to fight against COVID-19: Working together is more important than ever in the fight against COVID-19. In Spain, the World Bank is using Facebook’s Disease Prevention Maps to forecast needs for COVID-19 testing and hospital beds. Learn more about how we’re collaborating to keep communities safe and informed at about.fb.com/europe .
In today’s news from the Capitals:
PRAGUE
Babiš calls EU Commission auditors ‘mafia’ for confirming conflict of interest. The European Commission’s final audit report regarding the conflict of interest allegations levelled against Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Friday has triggered a heated reaction from the PM himself. Read more.
Africa seeks funding from Europe to invest in ecological transition euractiv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from euractiv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
You can subscribe here.
///
EDITOR’s PICK
Three presidents, two chairs… The Ankara incident has created another headache for the EU to deal with after a series of unfortunate foreign policy events in the past few months.
A failure to provide an equal seat to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a symbol of Erdogan’s game towards Brussels and the state of women’s rights in Turkey in general.
And yes, as a woman working on foreign, defence and security policy, it irked me to see, yet again, a female leader sidelined like this.
Too often, we still have to suffer the humiliation of not receiving a chair, figuratively or otherwise, at the discussion table, on a panel or during press conferences.