Speaking at a press conference in Brussels after the disclosure of the specific recommendations for each country, Pierre Moscovici stressed that the European Commission (EC) thought it was notable that the countries that had been under the financial assistance programme now had a sustainable and notable performance regarding their growth.

“And this is true for Portugal”, he added, saying that Brussels must also mention the good news.

Portugal was subject to the financial assistance programme between 2011 and 2014 and received foreign aid totalling €78 billion.

The EC recommended that Portugal should make the efforts needed to attain the Medium-Term Structural Objective in 2020, and said there was currently a significant risk of missing the objective of a zero budgetary balance.

In the specific recommendations for each member state disclosed today, Brussels recommends that Portugal should resort to exceptional revenues to speed up the reduction in the ratio of public administration debts and improve the quality of public finances by prioritizing spending that would boost growth while also bolstering the control over overall spending, the cost-efficiency balance and adequate budgets, “particularly focusing on a lasting reduction in hospital payments”.