"These are issues that have to do with accessibility, with the health system and on which we have to be focused in order to be able to work", said the head of government, recalling that community funds "will provide rare opportunities for the development of the region".

The prime minister pointed out the opportunities for the next community support frameworks, “the result of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and the negotiation for Portugal (PT) 2030”.

These are supports that will provide the Algarve “in the coming years with resources substantially superior to those of the last seven years”, he noted.

“To be aware of the 318 million euros of Portugal 2020, at this moment, in the PRR alone, 283 million euros are already contracted in the Algarve, in the areas of health, infrastructure, capitalisation and business innovation”, he highlighted.

In the PT2030 community framework, he added, “the Algarve will have 780 million euros”, a “doubling of community funds” in relation to the last seven years.

The Government has spent two days in the Algarve, where the Prime Minister, Ministers and Secretaries of State participated in around 60 initiatives.


Better conditions to live and work


António Costa added that in the work carried out in the set of actions, the Government was “with the very clear notion that there is an important challenge to be developed in terms of land use planning, the protection of natural resources and the need to create better conditions for those who wants to live and work in the Algarve”.

António Costa, accompanied by the Ministers of Culture, Territorial Cohesion and Science, Technology and Higher Education, closed today the two-day program of the “Closer Government” initiative in the district of Faro, with the inauguration of the Exhibition Center of the Fortress of Sagres, in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, alluding to the Discoveries and the Portuguese Expansion.

The centre is installed in a building inside the Fortress of Sagres, which resulted from a global investment of 3.1 million euros, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Cresc Algarve 2020 Program, and by funds from PIPITAL (compensation for the gambling concession managed by Turismo de Portugal).

António Costa considered that “it would be difficult to find a more inspiring place to set out on this adventure of the coming years”.