The President of the Agency for Investment and External Commerce (AICEP) of Portugal says the EU funds (QREN) are not tailored to business, because of its extreme bureaucracy and have a low utilization, while only 6.5 per cent of the money was actually applied so far.
"QREN (Quadro de Referência Estratégica Nacional) has had an unsatisfactory application. The degree of rate of applications is well below the potential," said the chairman of AICEP, Basilio Horta, in front of an audience of ambassadors and businessmen gathered at the Auditorium of the Portuguese Institute of National Defense.
During the speech, Basilio Horta also criticized the content of the program. To this charge, the QREN should be "more focused on business" in the "life of companies that are investing, which are becoming more international, and which have projects."
Original text in Portuguese from LUSA©2010
