The funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) is not a cheque given by the European Commission but a contract signed with the EU with goals, milestones and objectives, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said on Wednesday.
According to the prime minister, it was because Portugal had “met the targets and milestones” set down for 2022 that the “European Commission has already approved the payment of the first tranche and the payment of the second tranche” of the funding, and the targets for the new year also have to be met.
“The logic of the RRP is not a cheque that is written in Brussels for us to hand out in the country,” he said. “The RRP is a contract that we signed with the European Union that has a set of goals, milestones and objectives and in which payments are made as we meet the goals, milestones and objectives.”
Costa spoke after participating in the start of the government’s ‘RRP Roadmap’ on Wednesday afternoon visiting work on the construction of student accommodation at the University of Lisbon.
Costa stressed that “everyone has great anxiety and curiosity to know how the RRP is progressing and it is, therefore, important to see the RRP move.”
Noting that the student accommodation programme has €375 million earmarked to it in the RRP, Costa said that, with the execution of these works across Portugal, it will be possible to increase the number of beds in residences from around 15,000 to close to 27,000.
“A greater financial barrier even than the price of tuition fees is the cost of accommodation,” he noted. “Having affordable accommodation is an essential condition for more people to be able to attend higher education.”
Costa echoed Science, Technology, and Higher Education Minister Elvira Fortunato’s goal: to reach 2030 with 60% of 20-year-olds in higher education.
“This investment is not only to meet the needs of those who currently attend higher education, this investment is made so that we have the conditions for more people to attend higher education in the future,” he added.
(Joana Felizes | Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
