Government approves extension of PT2020 reimbursement deadline

The Government approved today in the Council of Ministers the extension of the reimbursement deadline for Portugal 2020 (PT2020), with the aim of avoiding the loss of European funds.

"The Government decided to approve a decree-law that extends the reimbursement period for PT2020", announced the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in a press conference, held after the Council of Ministers.

The government defended that with this measure the intention is to "avoid loss of European funds”.

PT2020 reached 99.6% execution and 112% commitment by the end of February, according to the latest program data. In turn, the achievement rate stood at 89%.

"As you know, several instruments – from PT2020, the Recovery and Resilience Plan, PT2030 – are delayed. They are further behind than the country was aware of", he said.

The decree-law approved by the Government thus extends the reimbursement deadline for the purposes of eligibility for expenses related to European funds.

PT2020 consists of a partnership agreement between Portugal and the European Commission, "in which the principles and programming priorities for Portugal's economic, social and territorial development policy are established, between 2014 and 2020”. PT2020 beneficiaries already received 26,400 million euros, which corresponds to 98% of the programmed funds.

In a total, funds worth 30,100 million euros were approved to support projects with 45,300 million euros of investment and the average financing rate is 66.4% of the eligible investment.

The program is covered by the n+3 rule, which means that, despite its validity ending in 2020, three more years are given for its implementation.

December 31, 2023 was the deadline for promoters to carry out and pay expenses, but not the end of the program.

Until the end of July 2024, beneficiaries can submit reimbursement requests to the management authorities of the respective programs. In turn, the managing authorities carry out checks, validate and pay expenses, while the certification authority analyzes and formalizes the last payment request for operational programs.

The first competitions for the PT 2020 program were opened in 2015.