Support for building crèches and schools

Subject: Support for building crèches and schools

On a recent trip to a number of municipalities in Portugal, I was informed that neither the previous nor the current multiannual financial framework allocates any funds for building educational facilities.

Facilities in many municipalities have either reached the end of their useful life or need to be upgraded to meet the needs of local residents.

What is more, there is an urgent need to build crèches to address the current shortage and meet, inter alia, the Barcelona targets. Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan (RRP) includes, under investment item RE-C03-i01, EUR 417 million in order to, among other things, upgrade and extend the network of social facilities and services, including for children.

In view of this:

1. What limitations do the current rules place on the use of funds to renovate educational facilities or build them from scratch?

2. Do the provisions of the RRP, under the conditions set by the Commission, allow funds to be used to build crèches where necessary to establish a public network of affordable, or even free, facilities?

3. Do the municipalities have access to these funds?

Answer given by Mr Gentiloni on behalf of the European Commission

(8 December 2021)

The regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (EU) 2021/241 (1) stipulates, inter alia, that Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) need to be consistent with the country-specific recommendations identified in the context of the European Semester and other EU initiatives, and that RRP measures should not be supporting or carrying out activities that make a significant harm to environmental objectives.

The regulation’s rules apply to all measures of the RRP and do not include specific limitations regarding the use of funds for the renovation and/or construction of educational facilities. Investments RE-C03-i01 and RE-C03-i04-RAA of the Portuguese RRP include the renovation and expansion of existing social services’ facilities, such as crèches, and the construction of new ones.

The Member States shall be the beneficiaries or borrowers of funds under the Facility and they shall be responsible for redistributing these funds to final recipients, which may include, inter alia, municipalities.

For the 2021-2027 programming period, other EU funds, notably the European Regional Development Fund, under Cohesion Policy Objective 4, may support improving equal access to inclusive and quality services in education. For the 2014-2020 programing period, Portugal has planned around EUR 595 million in education infrastructures in primary and secondary education and around EUR 298 million have already been spent (2).

⋅1∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0241&from=EN

⋅2∙ Open Data Portal for the European Structural Investment Funds — European Commission | Data | European Structural and Investment Funds (europa.eu).