PT2020 - Portugal 2020

This is the PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT signed between Portugal and the European Commission, which gathers the action of the 5 European Structural and Investment Funds - FEDER, Cohesion Fund, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF. It sets out the programming principles that define the economic, social and territorial development policy to be promoted in Portugal between 2014 and 2020. These programming principles are aligned with the Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth pursued by the EUROPA 2020 STRATEGY. Portugal will be awarded 25 billion euros until 2020, and for this it set out the Thematic Goals to stimulate the growth and the creation of Employment, the necessary interventions to achieve them as well as the undertakings and the expected outcomes as a result of this funding.

The main goals of the policies to be pursued within the scope of Portugal 2020 are: - to foster the production of tradable goods and services; to increase exports; to transfer outputs from the scientific system to the productive fabric; to comply with compulsory education until 18 years of age; to decrease early school leaving levels; to integrate people at risk of poverty and combat social exclusion; to promote sustainable development, from a perspective of the efficient use of resources; to reinforce territorial cohesion, particularly in cities and low-density areas; to rationalize, modernize and empower Public Administration. Portugal’s Strategy for Research and Innovation for Intelligent Specialization should also be highlighted in its NATIONAL and REGIONAL components: NORTH | CENTRE | LISBON | ALENTEJO | ALGARVE | AZORES | MADEIRA – approved on 23 December 2014. It identifies the key intelligent strategic commitments, which are topics with scientific, technological and economic specialization, in which Portugal and its regions have comparative and competitive advantages, or which have revealed potential to emerge as such. The alignment with these strategies is mandatory for achieving the investments of Portugal 2020 in Research, technological Development and Innovation (OT 1), and a priority in the other cases, such as, for instance, within the scope of support to the competitiveness of SMEs (OT 3). At the initiative of the Portuguese authorities, the EX-ANTE EVALUATION OF THE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT was carried out, supported by an interactive process of reflection which reinforced the scrutiny of the main strategic choices.