The Municipality of Famalicão managed to raise almost 31 million euros through applications submitted to funding programmes under Portugal 2030, the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and other European and national programmes.
The mayor, Mário Passos, presented the figures on Thursday morning during the municipal executive meeting and, for the mayor, ‘reflect the municipality's ability to raise funds and take advantage of opportunities’.
Last year, the municipality submitted and participated in 47 applications, with 28 projects approved.
‘These are figures that are the result of very careful planning and strategic work by the services, and which we have then had the structural and financial capacity to implement,’ said Mário Passos.
Of the applications submitted in 2024, the mayor also expects more projects to be approved in various processes that are still ongoing, emphasising the fact that ‘none have been rejected so far’.
Considering that EU funds have been important for the development of territories, ‘either we take advantage of them and make a significant leap forward in terms of equipment - and this clearly affects our well-being and quality of life - or we will be left behind’, the mayor pointed to various investments that are taking place within this framework in areas as diverse as housing, schools, health centres, new green parks, urban regeneration, or other projects such as Erasmus+, Interreg or the Environmental Fund. Specific examples include the rehabilitation and extension of the Padre Benjamim Salgado School, the rehabilitation of the EB Senador Sousa Fernandes, the Sinçães Norte Park, the rehabilitation of the USF Famalicão Urbana, the ‘Há Cultura’ programme or the application for the PT 2030 Urban Waste Collection Programme.
Mário Passos also mentioned the municipality's attention to ‘the reprogramming of the PRR and new notices, so that we can present other proposals that are eligible for funding’.
It's worth remembering that back in 2024, when he visited Vila Nova de Famalicão, the president of the PRR National Monitoring Committee, Pedro Dominguinhos, had praised the capacity of the municipality and the different players in the area who applied for support from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), with amounts approved that exceeded 180 million euros, in a total of more than 2,600 projects involving more than 2,800 beneficiaries and representing 30 per cent of PRR investment in the Ave sub-region.
