Government may sanction delays on executing funds
The rate of commitment to funds is far from its rate of execution, so the Government may create an incentives system for those who comply with deadlines, and which harms those who are delayed.
“We may create an incentives system which progressively rewards the implementation of projects and which harms unjustified or repeated delays in closing-up projects”. The suggestion was made by the State secretary for Regional Development Nelson Souza in the annual meeting about EU funds.
There are no further details on the idea. The Planning minister Pedro Marques told ECO that creating these incentives for a faster execution is “a future possibility”. On the other hand, he recalls there has been an increase in the “grant rate of investment to be accelerated”, recalled Pedro Marques.
Although there is still no final decision on the issue, a new mechanism may need to be reintroduced in Portugal: according to quarterly data from the Portugal 2020 programme, the execution of a new community support framework was, on March 31st, 13.2%; as for the commitment rate (money which has already been granted for a certain project not yet being implemented) was around 45.8%.
