Legal provisions of COM(2020)473 - COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING DECISION granting temporary support under Council Reg. 2020/672 to Portugal to mitigate unemployment risks following COVID-19 outbreak

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Article 1

Portugal fulfils the conditions set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2020/672.

Article 2

1. The Union shall make available to Portugal a loan amounting to a maximum of EUR 5 934 462 488. The loan shall have a maximum average maturity of 15 years.

2. The availability period for financial assistance granted by this Decision shall be 18 months starting from the first day after this Decision has taken effect.

3. The Union financial assistance shall be made available by the Commission to Portugal in a maximum of eight instalments. An instalment may be disbursed in one or several tranches. The maturities of the tranches under the first instalment may be longer than the maximum average maturity referred to in paragraph 1. In such cases, the maturities of further tranches shall be set so that the maximum average maturity referred to in paragraph 1 is respected once all instalments have been disbursed.

4. The first instalment shall be released subject to the entry into force of the loan agreement provided for in Article 8(2) of Regulation (EU) 2020/672.

5. Portugal shall pay the cost of the funding of the Union referred to in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2020/672 for each instalment plus any fees, costs and expenses of the Union resulting from any funding related to the loan granted under paragraph 1 of this Article.

6. The Commission shall decide on the size and release of instalments, as well as on the size of the tranches.

Article 3

Portugal may finance the following measures:

(a)the support for the maintenance of employment contracts through the temporary interruption of work or reduction of normal working time, as provided for in Articles 298 to 308 of ‘Law No 7/2009 of 12 February’;

(b)the new and simplified special support for the maintenance of employment contracts through the temporary interruption of work or reduction of normal working time, as provided for in ‘Decree-Law No 10-G/2020 of 26 March’ and Article 2 of ‘Decree-Law No 27-B/2020 of 19 June’;

(c)the special vocational programmes for the maintenance of employment contracts through the temporary interruption of work or reduction of normal working time, as provided for in Articles 7 to 9 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-G/2020 of 26 March’;

(d)the new special support for firms for the resumption of business activity, as provided for in Article 4(1) to (7) and (10) to (12) and Article 5 of ‘Decree-Law No 27-B/2020 of 19 June’;

(e)the new income stabilisation supplement for employees covered by either the support referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) for the maintenance of employment contracts through the temporary interruption of work or reduction of normal working time enshrined in Portugal’s Labour Code, or the new and simplified support introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as provided for in Article 3 of ‘Decree-Law No 27-B/2020 of 19 June’, as amended by ‘Law 58-A/2020 of 14 August’;

(f)the new and progressive special support for the maintenance of employment contracts through the temporary reduction of normal working time as provided for in ‘Decree-Law No 46-A/2020 of 30 July’;

(g)the new special support for the self-employed, informal workers and managing partners as provided for in Articles 26 to 28 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’ and Article 325-G of ‘Law No 2/2020 of 31 March’, as amended by Article 3 of ‘Law No 27-A/2020 of 24 July’;

(h)the family allowance for employees prevented from working due to the need to assist their children under 12 years of age or other dependents as provided for in Article 23 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’;

(i)the special support for the maintenance of trainers’ employment contracts in the light of the cancellation of vocational trainings as provided for in ‘Government Order No 3485-C/2020 of 17 March’, ‘Government Order No 4395/2020 of 10 April’ and ‘Government Order No 5897-B/2020 of 28 May’;

(j)the regional employment-related measures in the autonomous region of the Azores as provided for in ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 97/2020 of 8 April’, ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 120/2020 of 28 April’, ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 128/2020 of 5 May’, ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 129/2020 of 5 May’, ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 195/2020 of 15 July’, ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 196/2020 of 15 July’ and ‘Resolution of the Council of the Regional Government of the Azores No 200/2020 of 17 July’;

(k)the regional employment-related measures in the autonomous region of Madeira, as provided for in ‘Resolution of the Regional Government of Madeira No 101/2020 of 13 March’ and ‘Ordinance No 133-B/2020 of the Vice-Presidency of the Regional Government of Madeira and of the Regional Secretariat for Social Inclusion and Citizenship of 22 April’;

(l)the allowance for employees and self-employed in prophylactic isolation as provided for in Article 19 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’ and Article 325-F of ‘Law No 2/2020 of 31 March’, as amended by Article 3 of ‘Law No 27-A/2020 of 24 July’;

(m)the sickness allowance owing to the contraction of COVID-19 as provided for in Article 20 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’ and Article No 325-F of ‘Law No 2/2020 of 31 March’, as amended by Article 3 of ‘Law No 27-A/2020 of 24 July’;

(n)the purchase of personal protective equipment to be used in the workplace, notably in public hospitals, line ministries, municipalities and the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira as provided for in Article 3 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’;

(o)the school hygiene campaign as provided for in Article 9 of ‘Decree-Law No 10-A/2020 of 13 March’;

(p)the testing for contraction of COVID-19 of inpatients and workers of public hospitals, as well as of employees of nursing homes and childcare facilities;

(q)the new special compensation for workers in the National Health Service involved in fighting the COVID-19 outbreak as provided for in Article 42-A of ‘Law No 2/2020 of 31 March’, as amended by Article 3 of ‘Law No 27-A/2020 of 24 July’.

Article 4

Portugal shall inform the Commission by 30 March 2021, and every six months thereafter of the implementation of the planned public expenditure until such time as that planned public expenditure has been fully implemented.

Article 5

This Decision is addressed to the Portuguese Republic.

This Decision shall take effect on the date of its notification to the addressee.

Article 6

This Decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.