Portugal to use €500 million from European funds for wildfire recovery

euronews (in English)

Portugal has received authorisation from the European Commission to access €500 million from cohesion funds to help cover the damage caused by the fires.

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00:00The Portuguese government has said it will deploy its EU cohesion funds for a speedy

00:05reconstruction of parts of the country devastated by wildfires.

00:09Authorities say work has now started to assess the extent of the damage in the north and

00:14centre of Portugal.

00:16The decision comes after a meeting between Prime Minister Luiz Montenegro and the EU

00:21Commission.

00:22This dialogue with the President of the European Commission led to the decision of the Commission

00:29to allow Portugal to access 500 million euros of the cohesion funds that are destined for

00:41the next few years and to cover the damage it suffered with a share rate that can exceptionally

00:51be up to 100%.

00:53According to the Portuguese Prime Minister, investigation was also ongoing to find the

00:58culprits setting fire to forests in certain instances.

01:02The investigation will seek to determine the motivation of the perpetrators and their sponsors.

01:09The fires that hit the northern and central regions of the country last week caused nine

01:14deaths and more than 160 injuries.

01:17The fires consumed about 135,000 hectares of forest between September 15 and 20, totaling

01:24almost 147,000 hectares of area burned this year, the third worst record in the last decade.

01:31Joana Marom Carvalho for Euronews in Lisbon.

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