Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Portugals sixth payment request for €1.34 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centerpiece of NextGenerationEU.

Following its assessment of the payment request, submitted by Portugal on November 14, 2024, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Portugal has satisfactorily completed the 32 milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the sixth instalment.

The payment request supports 7 reforms and 22 investments that will benefit citizens and businesses in Portugal, focusing on healthcare, housing, including access to energy-efficient housing, social inclusion, raising awareness on forest fires, and increasing the deployment of critical digital infrastructure.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• A reform to improve insolvency proceedings

A new legal framework has been introduced to streamline insolvency and restructuring processes for companies, leveraging digital tools to increase efficiency and reduce delays. This is part of an overall effort to reduce investment barriers and increase efficiency in court proceedings.

• An investment to enhance palliative and home care services

Portugal has invested in expanding its national care networks, creating 1,000 new spots in integrated home care teams, 100 new positions in mental health support teams, and 100 new places in community palliative care. This initiative supports the National Strategy for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and aims to upgrade the countrys palliative and continued care services.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Portugals fulfillment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Portugal can take place following the EFCs opinion and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.

Background

The Portuguese recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed by €22.2 billion in grants and loans. Portugal has already received €11.4 billion and the successful completion of the 6^th payment request would bring the total disbursement to around 57% of the total allocation.

You can find more information on Portugals Recovery and Resilience plan online, which features an interactive map of projects financed by the RRF, as well as on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard. More information on the process of payment requests under the RRF can be found in this document of questions and answers.