Portugal, with the permission of Brussels’, will activate the protection clause of the European Union (EU) budget rules. This will allow the country to temporarily bear the additional energy-related costs resulting from the current crisis, without being seen as a violation.
According to Lusa’, Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, the “Commission understands that it must now create an exemption clause, as in the defense spending rules, and is in demand in many countries. We support this decision and will enact this clause just as we did for the defense, ” said.
When Joaquim Miranda Sarmento arrived at the Eurogroup meeting in ’, Luxembourg, she told Portuguese journalists that Portugal, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission, ’ was the fifth country in the European Union that provided the most support in proportion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in ’.
He added that this situation allows the country to maintain and even increase these support measures, depending on how the conflict in Iran’, triggered by the Israeli and US ’'s attacks, develops.
Portugal therefore plans to take advantage of AB’'s temporary exemption so that it can increase public spending beyond what was originally planned, without being seen as a violation of the European bloc's budget rules. This measure comes on top of another resilience mechanism already in place to cover defense spending.
“Current crisis 2022Different from ’
According to Joaquim Miranda Sarmento’, the current crisis 2022 is different from the crisis in ’. The European Central Bank (ECB) in response to the inflationary pressures caused by the war in the Middle East, ’ argued that the interest rate increase is absolutely not necessary, and the ECB commented on ’'s decision.
According to Lusa’, the Minister of Finance, “Naturally, there is a concern on the part of the European Central Bank. The ECB, which played a crucial role in the 2022 ’ [previous energy crisis], has decided to give the market this first signal, but we will see in the coming months. He could have avoided sending this signal, and I maintain my view that this is absolutely not necessary, but naturally I respect the authority and independence of ECB’, ” said.
“The European Central Bank has already decided to raise interest rates, but we are in a very different situation both in terms of inflation and in terms of Central Bank interest rates, ” added.
