From 18 to 20 July, MEPs visited several projects and met with representatives from government and Parliament, examining Regional Policy and recovery plan implementation.
A delegation of 10 Members of the Committee on Budgets and one Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs travelled to Portugal from 18 to 20 July to visit and discuss projects financed through the European Union’s Regional Policy, but also to learn about the implementation of the “NextGenerationEU” recovery fund, in particular Portugal’s national plan in the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
MEPs visited EU funded projects in the Lisbon and Braga areas, including one of the first RRF projects by CITEVE (Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias Têxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal). They also met with Mariana Vieira da Silva, Minister of State for the Presidency and João Nuno Mendes, Secretary of State for the Treasury, as well as Edite Estrela, Vice-President of the Parliament and with relevant parliamentary committee Chairs. MEPs also had the opportunity to discuss with representatives from regional and local governments.
Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, BE), Head of the Delegation and Chair of the Committee on Budgets, said:
I am impressed by what we have seen in Portugal. Cohesion and structural funds are well used to help Portugal increase economic performance and better social circumstances. Portugal seems set to keep the same line for Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and implement the key reforms included in the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan. The exchanges we had have also strengthened my conviction that a key condition for success in the implementation of RRF is the strong involvement of regional and local authorities, as always stressed by the Parliament in the negotiations on the RRF regulation and in the plenary resolution of last June.
Members of the delegation
- Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, BE), Head of the Delegation and Chair of the Committee on Budgets
- Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, IT)
- Jose Manuel Fernandes (EPP, PT)
- Andrey Novakov (EPP, BG)
- Jan Olbrycht (EPP, PL)
- Camilla Laureti (S&D, IT)
- Margarida Marques (S&D, PT)
- Valérie Hayer (Renew, FR)
- Fabienne Keller (Renew, FR)
- Bogdan Rzońca (ECR, Poland_
- Dragos Pîslaru (Renew, RO) – for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affair