European Commission approves Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan

The European Commission gave the green light to the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan, a total grant of EUR 16 644 M, focused on three main thematic areas: resilience, climate transition and digital transition.

Concentrating 61% of the total amount of grants, in the Resilience Dimension, stands out the component C5: Capitalization and Business Innovation, with 5 reforms and 7 investments in a total of EUR 2 914 M that aims to increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy based on R&D, innovation, diversification and specialization of the productive structure.

Also, in the Climate Transition Dimension, a financing tranche corresponding to 21% of the total grants will be applied, where component C11: Industry Decarbonization has a financing of EUR 715 M, aiming to decarbonizing the industrial sector and accelerating the transition to carbon neutrality. With EUR 370 M, the C14 component: Hydrogen and Renewables is also included in this dimension, which promotes the energy transition through support to renewable energies, with a focus on the production of hydrogen and other gases of renewable origin.

The Digital Transition Dimension concentrates 18% of the total amount of financing, giving importance to the reinforcement of the digitalization of companies, in which component C16: Companies 4.0 is included, with a budget of EUR 650 M.

After the plan was approved on June 16^th, now was launched the first open calls:

• STEAM Adult and Youth Incentive Program. The first allocated EUR 130 M to support the conversion and updating skills of active adults and the second is assigned EUR 122 M to promote and support initiatives to increase higher education for young people. Higher Education Institutions, and local, regional and national public entities that intend to apply must submit the application from August 16^th to September 10^th.
  
  
• Support Program for More Sustainable Buildings, which has EUR 30 M to support improvements in energy efficiency, where each house can be supported with a maximum value of €7,500 and, in the case of buildings, the maximum amount is €15,000 to finance construction. The deadline for submitting applications runs from the 22^nd of June to the 30^th of November 2021.

It's expected that, in the next few days, the remaining calls will be launched.