Portugal receives €130 billion from Brussels since joining EEC

Portugal has received €130 billion in European funds since joining the union in 1986.

Since signing up for membership of what then was called the European Economic Community, Portugal has been receiving funds to support economic, social and territorial cohesion in Europe.

The Bank of Portugal has looked at the figures and concluded that from 1986 to the end of 2018, Portugal will have received around €130 billion at 2011 prices, which corresponds, on average, to about of 2.5% of GDP per year.

The Bank of Portugal anticipates said also that receipts from Europe under the current programme will recover in the next years.

“In the next few years, a recovery European funds in Portugal is projected,” which will have a significant impact on the current and capital account balance.

The projected evolution of European funds for the period 2019-2021, “takes into account the patterns observed in the past as well as information obtained from the monitoring of the current programming period,” reads the scintillating Bank of Portugal bulletin.

Among the group of countries whose financial allocation is equal to or greater than 1% of GDP per year, Portugal ranks the highest.

It is two way traffic though as Portugal has transferred funds to Europe, in particular ??customs duties, agricultural levies and financial contributions based on value added tax and gross national income.

In the period 1996 to 2018, these transfers were relatively stable at around 1% of GDP per year.

There are five major multiannual programming cycles already implemented in Portugal: the Community Support Framework I (CSF I) between 1989 and 1993; the Community Support Framework II (CSF II) between 1994 and 1999; the Community Support Framework III (CSF III) between 2000 and 2006; the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) between 2007 and 2013; and the current Portugal 2020 partnership agreement between 2014 and 2020.