Portugal redoes business contingency plan because of Brexit
Boris Johnson's threat to tear up the Brexit deal led Portugal to rework the contingency plan.
After the United Kingdom published a proposal on internal trade which, according to Boris Johnson, aims to protect the country from “extremist or irrational interpretations” of the EU’s Exit Agreement, alarm bells rang in several European capitals.
In Lisbon, the government is updating and redoing a contingency plan if negotiations with the UK fail.
The revelation was made this Wednesday by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, at a conference organised by the Lusa agency and the European Parliament on Ursula Von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech.
“We are going to revisit the contingency plan, especially regarding companies”, in order to prepare them for a scenario of an exit without an agreement, explained Ana Paula Zacarias.
The UK is no longer formally in the European institutions but remains part of the single market until the end of the transition period, which ends on 31 December.
Last year, the government published a Preparatory and Contingency Plan aimed at “protecting the rights of Portuguese citizens in the UK and the rights of British citizens in Portugal.”
In addition, the plan had a focus on “technical and financial support to economic agents,” a focus that Ana Paula Zacarias now reveals that the Portuguese government will revisit and update.
