Lagos, Faro, Portugal, June 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese president warned on Monday that the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) “is stalling” and suggested that the government present a proposal to parliament on public contracting procedures in order to combat bureaucracy.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was speaking to journalists after presiding over the flag-raising ceremony in Lagos, in the district of Faro, the first item on the programme of celebrations for the Day of Portugal (10th June).
While visiting an exhibition of the Portuguese Armed Forces’ military resources and capabilities, accompanied by Defence Minister Nuno Melo, the head of state was asked about the priority given by the government to state reform.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa began by talking about the need for greater coordination between ministries, saying that the situation where there are sometimes “dozens” of different digitisation systems in each ministry cannot continue.
He then went on to talk about a second dimension of state reform, related to the fight against bureaucracy, leaving the following message.
“The other part is to reform the laws on the State and the functioning of the State, which means, in particular, that the Government should present to Parliament, perhaps, a new law on public contracting procedures. The Recovery and Resilience Plan (the EU funds for economic recovery) is stalling in many cases, taking too long,” he warned.
The country’s president said that there is “such bureaucracy that, instead of spending €200 million a week on the ground, we spend 100, 80, 70 - over the years, this means a lot of money wasted”.
“So there are two things that have to work well at the same time: coordinating and combining the way public administration data is processed digitally; and reviewing the laws to make them faster, and finishing with procedural aspects, finishing with details that are holding back the functioning of public administration,” he argued.
Asked whether state reform will determine the success or failure of the current prime minister, Luís Montenegro, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “I would say that the success or failure of any government and any country, because we have a timeframe that is much longer than that of other more advanced countries. This is a job for four years, at least,” he added.
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