Prime Minister António Costa said that “now, it is important to stabilize the country’s economic and social situation”, and, for that, the Government is “working to approve, next week, an economic and social stabilization program”.

The Prime Minister, who made a statement at the end and three days of meetings with parliamentary parties, the social partners, and the social economy sector, presented the four dimensions of the program.

The first is institutional, and will respond «to the financing needs of the autonomous regions and the local authorities, creating conditions for a real development bank to operate, in order to streamline the licensing processes for private investments, through a Simplex SOS, in a set of measures that aim to create better institutional conditions for public and private investment ».

The second is for companies, and will ensure, “not only, liquidity for their operation, but also the reinforcement of their own capital through the creation of capitalization mechanisms that allow them to survive and become stronger to prepare for the exit crisis ”.

The third, “central to this entire program”, is for “employment, which was one of the great results of the last five to that of economic policy and has been one of the greatest victims of this crisis”, being therefore “essential to have effective mechanisms for support for hiring ”and“ maintaining job protection measures over the next few months ”.

«The simplified lay-off, which has already preserved more than 800 thousand jobs, must evolve as of the end of June, so that it is not a negative incentive for companies to make the effort to resume their activity, nor an instrument that penalizes workers’ incomes, ”he said, adding that it will have to evolve“ so that it continues to be an effective instrument in protecting jobs, but so that it progressively ceases to be a factor in loss of income ”.

The fourth is social, highlighting “strengthening the National Health Service – which was decisive in facing this crisis -, either to prevent the risk of possible new pandemic peaks, or to recover the work that was postponed over the past two months’.

António Costa also referred to “other aspects of this social dimension, such as income protection and the fight against poverty”.

The Prime Minister said that from everyone (parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic, social partners and the social sector) “I received interesting proposals that deserve the best attention from the Government”.

The program “has political, legislative and financial consequences, the program that will be part of the Supplementary Budget that will be presented in the first half of June, and that will contain the necessary resources to finance it”.

More than one million Portuguese supported s

António Costa recalled that «over these two months we have been adopting measures to protect the lives of companies, jobs and income, and as a whole, around 1 154 thousand Portuguese people have already been directly supported to support their income» .

The Government believes that it will be possible “to stabilize the economic and social framework by the end of the year, giving space to preserve businesses, jobs and household income, so that we have the best conditions for, at the right moment, a relaunch. economy “, which” is conditioned by the evolution of the crisis on a global scale and from which we all have to leave together “.

The Prime Minister referred that “the presentation, by the European Commission, of an economic recovery program was a very significant step for Europe to live up to its responsibilities and assume definitively that only together and in solidarity can it face, win and overcome this crisis ».

“This is a very ambitious proposal that adds 750 billion euros” to the 1.1 billion euros “of the next multiannual financial framework”, this increase “obtained, for the first time, by the issue of joint debt by part of the European Union ‘, with 2/3 of this amount’ distributed by States as a grant, not a loan ‘.

António Costa underlined that this is “a gesture of the greatest importance, both for the source of financing and for the mode of distribution”.

In addition, “the integration of this recovery fund in the European Union’s multiannual financial framework ensures that the recovery effort is consistent with the major strategic ambitions that the Union had defined”, he said.

These strategic priorities – “the fight against climate change, the transition to the digital society, and, most importantly, the assumption of the European Union’s strategic autonomy effort, relocating in Europe a set of productive activities, which has been relocating to other regions of the world »-« are in line with the priorities of government action »in Portugal».

For Portugal, “which demonstrated, in an exemplary way, an enormous capacity to adapt its business fabric, and, in particular, its industry, to new needs, it is an enormous opportunity to have a strategy for the valorization of natural resources and reindustrialization ‘.

The Prime Minister underlined that the national economic recovery must be “thought strategically” because this is “a unique opportunity to create the foundations for healthy development, so that we can have a more relevant role in the European value chain”.

António Costa also pointed out, “as frankly positive”, the fact that this Commission proposal maintains the levels of funding for the cohesion policy of the current multiannual financial framework, avoiding the proposed cuts, “and there is also a significant strengthening of the agricultural policy pillar common with regard to rural development, which is particularly important in Portugal ».

The Prime Minister said that he had personally greeted Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and hoped that, “at the European Council, we are all up to the responsibilities we have, and that it is not the Council that frustrates the hope that Today the Commission has opened ”, especially since“ throughout the crisis, the European institutions have been up to their responsibilities ”.

Referring to the actions of the European Central Bank, of the European Parliament, he highlighted the European Commission’s proposal, “so ambitious and so innovative in its method of financing and so supportive in the way in which these new resources should be distributed”