Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has said he is willing to consider changes to the 2027 State Budget to provide further support to people living in Madeira and the Azores.
Speaking on Tuesday, the 27th of October, at the start of the budget debate, Montenegro was responding to JPP deputy Filipe Sousa, who raised concerns about the additional costs faced by residents of the autonomous regions because of their insularity.
Sousa said he would present a proposal during the detailed budget discussions for direct support for the transport of goods by sea, with the aim of reducing the price of essential products in Madeira and the Azores.
Montenegro said the Government had not forgotten the autonomous regions and that this was reflected in several areas of the budget proposal. He added that the Government was willing to revisit the financial relationship between central and regional administrations during the detailed discussions and consider changes that would benefit residents of Madeira, Porto Santo and the Azores.
Sousa argued that reducing income tax alone was not enough and that more needed to be done to lower the cost of living. He said a State Budget should be measured not only by the State’s accounts, but also by the bills families face at the end of each month.
The JPP deputy maintained that the Government’s measures had not sufficiently reduced the cost of living and criticised the lack of concrete proposals to address insularity and mobility costs.
According to Sousa, the 2027 State Budget includes €127.4 million for the Azores and €79.9 million for Madeira to accommodate the effects of the Regional Finance Law. He asked whether Montenegro believed those amounts reflected the actual costs borne by residents and businesses in the autonomous regions.
Sousa also asked when the Government would regulate a territorial continuity mechanism previously approved by Parliament, saying that residents of Madeira, Porto Santo and the Azores were waiting for it to be put into practice.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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