Document “does not yet include impact of measure set out in executive’s programme”
The government is delivering the 2024/2028 Stability Programme to parliament today, a document based on unchanging policies, which does not yet include the impact of the measures set out in the new executive’s programme, writes Lusa.
The Stability Programme was approved by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday and will be discussed in Parliament on the April 24.
At the press conference after the Council of Ministers meeting, Minister for the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, said that after dialogue with the European Union institutions, the scenario and content of the Stability Programme are based on “unchanging policies and therefore do not reflect the discretionary options and measures” set out in the government programme, submitted to parliament last week.
With the simplified version of the document and the no-policy-change scenario (i.e. which takes into account the measures already legislated and planned), the budgetary impact of the policy measures planned by the executive is left out.
The Budgetary Framework Law (Lei de Enquadramento Orçamental – LEO) stipulates that “the government must present an update of the Stability Programme for the following four years to Parliament by April 15”, which then has 10 days to consider it.
Former Finance Minister Fernando Medina said in March that his government was working on the programme to leave it ready for the next government.
“We will leave all the work prepared so that it can be handed over to the next government, so that the next government can integrate the policies it wants into the next Stability Programme, to hand over to Brussels,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Source: LUSA
