Mangualde, Oliveira do Hospital and Sines are the small municipalities with the highest total value of investments approved under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The conclusion is the result of an analysis released this Friday by the PRR’s national monitoring committee, which sought to see how support is being distributed in geographical terms.
In this analysis of the application of funds from the European “bazooka”, the PRR monitoring committee focuses only on the final beneficiaries (who are responsible for the implementation and physical and financial execution of investments and who can be public or private entities) among the municipalities of small size of the Continent, that is, with up to 20 thousand inhabitants. Thus, of the 278 municipalities on the Continent, the analysis focuses on execution data from 164 municipalities.
Of these, more than half (83) have approved investments worth less than 5 million euros and 40 municipalities (24%) have a total approved value “between 5 and 10 million euros”. With values higher than these, 27 city halls (16%) present amounts “between 10 and 20 million euros”, and 14 (9%) have approved amounts that “exceed 20 million euros”.
The list of small municipalities with the highest amounts approved is led by Mangualdefrom the district of Viseu. The municipality with just over 18 thousand inhabitants has a total of approved investments worth R$ 81.6 million. The value almost corresponds to the sum of the total investments approved by the second and third most supported municipalities: Oliveira do Hospital and Sines.
Among the approved PRR investments that stand out in Mangualde is the PRR’s “Green Auto” mobilizing agenda, led by the carmaker Stellantis and in which 37 different entities are integrated. In July, on the occasion of the visit of the Government and the President of the Republic to the factory, this investment, which foresees the production of electric vehicles, already had an execution rate of 51%.
In the case of Oliveira do Hospital, the analysis carried out by commission led by Pedro Dominguinhos reveals that the municipality in the district of Coimbra, with 19 thousand inhabitants, has 46 million euros in investments approved with the PRR. Sines, in the district of Setúbal with 14 thousand inhabitants, has a total approved value of 40 million.
In Oliveira do Hospital, projects aimed at renewable energy and valorization of the industrial area stand outin the Cecolab collaborative laboratory and at the BLC3 technology and innovation campus. In Sines, one of the largest investments is the “Agenda Nexus”led by the Administration of the Ports of Sines and Algarve (APS), which envisages promoting the digital and ecological transition of the transport and logistics sector.
Next come the municipalities of Constância (33.8 million euros), Castro Verde (33 million euros), Vila Real de Santo António (31.7 million euros), Vila Velha de Ródão (30.4 million euros) euros), Aljustrel (28.8 million euros), Nelas (28.6 million euros), Alcanena (28.4 million euros), Grândola (23.9 million euros), Batalha (22.9 million euros) euros), Nazaré (21 million euros), Monção (20.5 million euros) and Campo Maior (18.5 million euros), which completes the top 15 biggest beneficiaries.
On the other hand, the lowest value among small municipalities is around 324 thousand euros.
In terms of regional representation, The top 20 largest beneficiaries at municipal level are made up of three municipalities from the intermunicipal community (CIM) of Dão Lafões (Mangualde, Nelas and Vouzela), 3 from the CIM in the Coimbra region (Oliveira do Hospital, Lousã and Arganil), 2 from the CIM of Alentejo Litoral (Sines and Grândola), 2 from the CIM of Médio Tejo (Constância and Alcanena), 2 from the CIM of Baixo Alentejo (Castro Verde and Aljustrel), 2 from the CIM of Alto Minho (Monção and Melgaço), 2 from the CIM of Alto Alentejo (Campo Maior and Ponte de Sor).
The PRR monitoring committee also reveals that there is a municipality from the CIM in the Algarve (Vila Real de Santo António), Beira Baixa (Vila Velha de Ródão), the Leiria Region (Batalha) and the West (Nazaré) on the list of municipalities with the highest total amount of approved investments.
According to the analysis carried out, companies are the main beneficiaries of these investments, “notably through mobilizing agendas, as well as the “Decarbonization, Sustainable Bioeconomy or Hydrogen and Renewable Gases” programs. “The exception is Vila Real de Santo António, where investment in housing by the municipality takes a leading position”, he reveals.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
