Access to the A4 from Vila Caiz and Livração

Subject: Access to the A4 from Vila Caiz and Livração

With a population of 5 000, Vila Caiz (Amarante) and Livração (Marco de Canaveses) have no direct access to the A4 motorway and, since 2009, have had no trains either.

Running from Porto to the border in Quintanilha (Bragança), the A4 was built with EU support to bring the coast within reach of northern inland Portugal, thereby bringing down accidents and reducing travel times.

Residents of these parishes, however, have no slip road onto the A4; to join, they have to drive more than 10 km out of their way. What is more, since the Livração train station (Tâmega line) was closed in 2009, they have had no railway access either.

The Recovery and Resilience Programme has earmarked some EUR 520 million for investment in roads and railways, of which EUR 313 million is to go towards building missing links and increasing network capacity. It is essential that this investment meet the needs of residents in Vila Caiz and Livração.

In the light of the above, what steps will the Commission take to encourage Portugal to build a slip road onto the A4 from Vila Caiz?

Answer given by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission (25 November 2021)

The Portuguese recovery and resilience plan (RRP) was submitted by Portugal and assessed by the Commission in accordance with the criteria of Article 19 of Regulation (EU) 2021/241 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (1), including compliance with the ‘do no significant harm’ principle. The Council Implementing Decision, approving the Commission’s positive assessment of the RRP for Portugal was adopted by the Council on 13 July 2021 (2).

The measures that Portugal put forward in the RRP include investments of EUR 313 million for the building of missing road links or the correction of the roads layout and EUR 65 million for cross-border road links.

The RRP does not include investments related with the access roads to the highway A4 for two villages: Vila Caiz (in the municipality of Amarante) and Livração (in the municipality of Marco de Canaveses). The design of and investment into the road network are the responsibility of the Portuguese authorities.

⋅1∙ Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, OJ L 57, 18.2.2021,

p. 17-75.

⋅2∙ Council Implementing Decision on the approval of the assessment of the recovery and resilience plan for Portugal, ST 10149 2021 INIT.