The Government will reassess projects that risk not being completed on time, such as the Lisbon Metro project, to avoid losing funds under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), it was announced on Tuesday.
“Our goal is to maximize the profitability of the PRR money and, naturally, to reorganize whatever needs to be reorganized, and for the European Union to open us up to investment projects that can be reallocated, so as not to lose the funds we have,” said the Secretary of State for Planning and Regional Development, Hélder Reis, in Faro.
There are projects whose completion deadlines are “difficult to meet” and which “need” to be re-evaluated, said the official, who spoke on the sidelines of the signing of a contract for the development and territorial cohesion of the Algarve.
“It is not worth it for us to delude ourselves into believing that we are capable and then, in the end, not being capable and failing to receive their share,” he said.
While assuring that there is no work “that, in principle, is destined to fall”, Hélder Reis stressed that the issue is understand if there are projects whose estimated completion time within the scope of the PRR programming is short.
The government official referred to the Lisbon Metro expansion project by asking: “Can we rethink it in a different way, can we rethink it in a different way?”
“Of course, is the metro important? Of course the metro is important. Is the Pisão dam important? Of course it is important. The desalination plant [para o Algarve] Is it important? Of course it is important. Everything is important, the problem is that we have to manage resources just like we manage them at home. Resources are scarce and desires are unlimited, and that is why we have to manage them that way,” he added.
On the other hand, there are also works whose amount initially planned in the PRR – built at a time when “the problems Europe was experiencing were different” to those of today, he stressed – may not be sufficient to complete them.
“The inflationary process that we are experiencing and the way it has impacted, for example, on construction, has meant that, in some areas, the estimate that has been made in the PRR is not sufficient to carry out the work that we have to carry out,” explained Hélder Reis.
The Secretary of State for Planning and Regional Development did not want to commit to a project review scheduleconsidering it “premature” to talk about dates.
“The only thing I can promise is that we will work hard to get this done as soon as possible and maximize the return of the PRR for our country,” he stressed.
Environmental organisation ZERO called on the government on Monday to phase in the Lisbon Metro expansion project, avoiding the loss of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), and to invest in the electrification of public road transport.
The PRR funding provides for an investment of 400 million euros in the Lisbon Metro for the extension of the Red Linefrom São Sebastião to Alcântara, and 250 million euros for the new Violet Line (light rail surface railway), which will connect the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital via Odivelas with Loures, for a total amount of 650 million euros.
Source: Observadora
