what, after all, is the plan that everyone talks about?

The Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) has been much discussed. But do you really know what it is? And what impact will it have on the lives of the Portuguese?

These days it’s hard not to hear about the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and the millions of euros it involves. However, for ordinary people, it is not always easy to understand the impact that this program can have on their daily lives. Will it change anything?

In order to understand what this plan consists of and to understand the reasons why Portugal – like other European Union (EU) countries – is receiving this support, it is important to remember the context in which it emerged.

THE EU “bazooka” it is, after all, a way of responding to the crisis generated by the pandemic. Next Generation EU was the instrument created for Member States and the EU itself to recover their economies and reduce the social impact caused by Covid-19. The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism is part of this joint recovery effort, financing the investments necessary for the EU to overcome a difficult moment.

Each country had to present its PRR, identifying the areas and investments considered essential for this recovery to occur.

The PRR is also a way for countries to carry out structural reforms. For example, related to the qualifications of the population or the difficulty of accessing digital services.

What does the PRR want?

The national PRR has been presented, approved and is already being implemented. There are 16.6 billion euros earmarked for three priority areas for economic and social recovery: Resilience, Climate Transition and Digital Transition.

These three dimensions are then broken down into 20 components, covering points such as the SNS, Housing, Sea, Sustainable Mobility, Enterprises 4.0 or Digital School. Under the PRR, 83 investments and 37 reforms are planned.

To understand how these funds are distributed, you can consult this infographic of the Positive Balancewhich summarizes the PRR and explains the funds and how they are distributed.

In practical terms, this means that the PRR will touch many aspects of our daily lives. Investments and reforms will thus end up benefiting a large part of the population, whether through more localized projects or reforms implemented at national level.

If we focus only on the dimension of Resilience, which will receive the largest share of the funds, we realize that these funds will serve, for example, to create a public housing stock at affordable costs, build more hospitals, improve the vehicle charging network electricity or combat inequalities in the labor market.

The Climate Transition will be a way to ensure more sustainability, for example through support to increase the energy efficiency of buildings or to encourage sustainable mobility.

The Digital Transition – whose importance was accentuated during the pandemic – covers areas such as empowerment and digital inclusion of people through education, training in digital skills and promotion of digital literacy, digital transformation of the business sector and digitalization of the State.

How does access to PRR funds work?

PRR funds are a way of boosting the economy, involving people and companies in this recovery effort.

The execution of the plan, its reforms and investments, is contracted by the Recover Portugal Mission Structure with public agencies or bodies, responsible for implementing these investments that have to hire whoever executes them. For example, a company to build a bridge or to create software that can be used to digitize public services.

The choice is made through the submission of applications. If you have a company, product or service that fits the investments and reforms provided for in the PRR, you should pay attention to the PRR website to see which the contests that are open and prepare your project.

You can track the use of PRR funds on the website More Transparency??

In this Positive Balance article you will know more details about this monitoring and transparency mechanism in the management of European funds.