Macau, China, March 28, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister of foreign affairs, Paulo Rangel, announced on Friday that the government has increased financial support for the Portuguese School of Macau (EPM), returning this funding to the level legally provided for after 11 years of cuts.
"We have just restored the Portuguese contribution to the Portuguese School of Macau, which... had been cut enormously," said Rangel, during a visit to the Chinese semi-autonomous region.
The Portuguese state holds a majority (51%) of the capital of the EPM foundation, but since 2014 the government in Lisbon had only contributed 10% of the school's running expenses, following a decision that was taken when Portugal was applying the terms of a euro-zone financial rescue programme.
The EPM's funding "is now at legal levels again, and for the first time in eleven years," Rangel announced at a reception for the Portuguese community in Macau, following a visit to the school.
Shortly afterwards, the minister told journalists that "there was no longer any reason, honestly, for there to be this cut and it has been maintained. We have increased the amount [of EPM funding] five times, so this is something that is highly significant of the commitment we have.
"There are governments that really give importance to Macau and China and there are others that don't; this is something that has to be said," he added, so pointing the finger at the previous, Socialist government.
The restoration of funding "is undoubtedly an important help" for the EPM, Rangel said, describing it as having a fundamental role for Portugal in Macau.
"We are also pleased to note... that there have never been so many Portuguese students - and now I'm talking about students from the Chinese community - as there are today in multiple schools," he added. "It means that the Special Administrative Region [of Macau] has also encouraged the teaching of Portuguese and knowledge of Portuguese, and this is something that can only bring good relations between the two sides."
At the end of December, the president of the foundation that oversees the EPM, Jorge Neto Valente, said that the school risked running out of money if the Portuguese state did not contribute more to its funding.
At an event in Lisbon, the lawyer said that EPM's expenses are expected to total €8 million in the 2024/2025 academic year.
"The [budget] deficits that have been occurring in recent years have been covered by FEPM [Fundação Escola Portuguesa de Macau], and if they are not stopped, there is a risk of seeing [the foundation's] capital depleted in the medium term," Neto Valente was quoted by Hoje Macau newspaper as saying.
The school "lives, above all, on support from the Macau government, without any interference," he added.
On Wednesday, Neto Valente had told Lusa that the EPM "has nothing to ask for" from Paulo Rangel.
"There is no whining; we have nothing to ask for, we have nothing to demand, everything is in order," he said.
VQ/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
