Wednesday

6th Dec 2023

No second bail-out for Portugal, says PM

Portugal has announced it will not seek a second bail-out, the country's new conservative prime minister has declared.

“We will not ask for a new aid programme. Neither for more money, nor for more time,” conservative Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told the country's parliament on Thursday (10 November) during the first round of debates on next year’s budget, a document that will include sweeping austerity measures demanded as part of the country’s current bail-out programme.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Portugal says it needs no extra help (Photo: fnkftw)

The evening before in Lisbon, eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker had said he was “very satisfied with the behaviour of [Portugal’s] government” and congratulated its “national consensus”, according to reports in the domestic press.

Even though the ruling centre-right coalition holds a comfortable majority in parliament, the opposition Socialist Party has said it would not vote against the new budget, but abstain instead.

“It will be a violent abstention, but also a constructive and positive abstention, which thinks in the first place about the people and does not turn its back on the country,” party leader António José Seguro said Sunday on national TV.

He did, however, demand a renegotiation of the terms of the current bail-out, given the rapidly deteriorating situation in the eurozone.

But Passos on Thursday re-iterated that austerity now is even more pressing. "Any relaxing of our public finances, being less robust, less credible will be another stone weighing on an already very fragile situation," he said.

Portugal last April agreed to an EU-IMF loan of €78 billion.

Officials from the so-called troika of the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank arrived in Lisbon on Monday for the evaluation of progress made in implementing the demanded austerity and to decide whether the third tranche of the loan should be dispersed – a development Juncker said he was “convinced” would happen.

Not everybody is as convinced, however, of the merits of the loan.

The Association of Portuguese Banks have written a letter to EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn complaining about the rules attached to the money, such as limits to remuneration of managers.

The troika’s popularity sank further in the eyes of the domestic audience after it became known that Portugal will have to pay a total of €655 million in administrative fees over the full period of the programme, to be terminated in 2013.

The EFSF, for example, charges “operational costs” atop the interest rate it receives. “These include everything that has anything to do with back-office management,” Christof Roche, the fund’s press officer, told this website.

The European Commission, for its part, denies that it charges any such fees. “There are no administrative fees and there are no fees on technical assistance,” commission spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio said on Thursday. The IMF was not available for comment at the time of publishing.

Ireland and Portugal get lower interest rates on bailouts

Ireland and Portugal on Thursday were given longer deadlines and interest rates to pay back their loans under their respective EU-IMF bailouts, but eurozone leaders made it clear that no private investors will be involved in their rescue, as it is the case with Greece.

Europe's central bank gives helping hand to Portugal

In a move similar to the Greek case, the European Central Bank on Thursday suspended a minimum rating requirement for Portuguese bonds after one of the major credit rating agencies earlier this week downgraded Portugal to 'junk status'.

EU public procurement reform 'ineffective', find auditors

The EU Commission reformed procurement directives to make bids more attractive (and competitive), but the reform has failed, say auditors. Procedures now take longer, and the number of direct awards and individual tenders has increased over the past decade.

Opinion

Can Green Deal survive the 2024 European election?

Six months ahead of the EU elections, knocking an 'elitist' climate agenda is looking like a vote-winner to some. Saving the Green Deal and the EU's climate ambitions starts with listening to Europeans who are struggling to make ends meet.

Analysis

What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

The most critical UN climate conference (COP28) ever will run from Thursday to mid-December — with talks on climate commitments and climate finance expected to determine the success of this year's summit.

Latest News

  1. Crunch talks seek breakthrough on EU asylum overhaul
  2. Polish truck protest at Ukraine border disrupts war supplies
  3. 'Green' banks lend most to polluters, reveals ECB
  4. Tense EU-China summit showdown unlikely to bear fruit
  5. A look to the past and the future of China-EU relations
  6. Tusk's difficult in-tray on Poland's judicial independence
  7. EU nears deal to fingerprint six year-old asylum seekers
  8. Orbán's Ukraine-veto threat escalates ahead of EU summit

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us