News

5. 5. 201422:07

Portugal set to successfully complete aid programme and will require no further assistance

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has announced that the country’s three-year aid programme will draw to a close in May and that no further support in the form of preventive financial assistance would be needed. Portugal is following in the steps of another aid-programme country – Ireland, which enjoyed a successful comeback on the financial markets and wound up its recovery programme in December 2013.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Portuguese Government on its massive efforts, in recent years, to push through tough and often extremely painful measures aimed at reforming the economy and restoring economic growth.

I applaud the fact that, despite being faced with incredibly difficult circumstances at a time of general economic recession, Portugal persevered in pursuit of the targeted consolidation of public finances and in its attempts to improve the competitiveness of the national economy.

Portugal can now stand alongside Ireland as a successful example of the euro area’s ability to respond to existing problems and reform for the sake of sustainable growth and prosperity. Likewise, Greece’s push for a return to financial markets is commendable. This significant step by the Portuguese Government shows that confidence in the euro area is reborn.

Tomáš Prouza, State Secretary for European Affairs