The Portuguese Court of Auditors’ audit report on the ‘Portugal 2020’ partnership agreement

Subject: The Portuguese Court of Auditors’ audit report on the ‘Portugal 2020’ partnership agreement

Portugal’s Court of Auditors has today published an audit report on the ‘Portugal 2020’ partnership agreement identifying the factors behind its low level of implementation and risks undermining the implementation of financing from the next MFF and RRP funds.

The report further states that in seven years ‘it has only been possible to implement nearly 60% of a total of around EUR 26 billion in European funding’ and thus warns of ‘the risk represented in taking up more than EUR 60 billion in the coming years, of which a large part (RRP) will have be implemented in a shorter time-frame than normal programming periods and involves complex investments’, and concludes that it is therefore fundamental to ‘exponentially multiply the absorption capacity of European funding’.

This low implementation rate is attributed to insufficient human resources in support structures, invitations to tender both dragging on too long and being unattractive, a lack of interest among potential beneficiaries, delays in obtaining authorisations and the slow processing of payment requests.

We therefore ask the Commission:

What view does it take of the report’s conclusions and what recommendations would it make to the Portuguese Government to improve implementation of EU funding?

Answer given by Ms Ferreira on behalf of the European Commission

(2 February 2022)

The report by Portugal’s Court of Auditors on the ‘Portugal 2020’ Partnership Agreement presents information and conclusions that overall are in line with the equivalent audit and monitoring work performed by the responsible Commission services. On the question of levels of implementation of EU funding:

— The Portuguese Court of Auditors stresses the slow implementation, but also the high rates of commitment, which in Portugal represent significant overbooking (1). An update of that information (2) shows that the commitment rate (committed/programmed) of cohesion policy funds in Portugal was 116%. High rates of commitment, in general tend to warrant future execution until the end of the programming period in 2023.

— In terms of implementation, as at 30 September 2021, Portugal shows an execution rate of 65% (executed/programmed), which is above the EU average.

The conclusions of the Court are based on 2018 milestones and execution data until 31 December 2020. The Commission considers that the above updates are reassuring. In addition, the Commission notes that the commitment rates have recently translated into execution at a faster pace, which is a common tendency towards the end of the programming period. In 2021, Portugal presented a roadmap to improve the administrative capacity for 2021-2027. This intends to address the weaknesses detected in the programmes across authorities, organisations, human resources and instruments. Finally, even if execution of cohesion policy funds could be improved further, Portugal has the fifth highest execution rate in the EU-28.

For the Recovery and Resilience Plan, Portugal set up the task force Recuperar Portugal with an adequate structure for implementing the plan, monitoring progress and reporting.

⋅1∙ cf. Figure 7, page 49 Overbooking corresponds to the share of committed resources over the programmed allocation exceeding 100%.

⋅2∙ State of play on 30 September 2021.