According to the Lisbon local authority, so far, the IHRU "has only approved 123 million euros out of 451 million euros applied for" in funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). "More than half of this amount is already committed in the municipal budget, with work in progress or completed," he said. The Lisbon City Council was thus responding to questions from Lusa about the term of responsibility proposed by the Government to accelerate the execution of European funds for housing. The capital's municipality also said that it is awaiting "concrete information" on what will be requested from the municipalities within the scope of the term of responsibility proposed by the Government. In an interview with Lusa on Friday, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, announced that the Government will establish a "term of responsibility", to be signed by the local authorities, to "guarantee the continuation of the application" for PRR funds. The minister justified that this will allow contracts to be signed with the municipalities "now", so that they can "allocate the funds" and "launch the tenders, whether for the project, for the work, or for whatever they deem necessary" within the scope of the applications for European funds. "The municipalities have to take responsibility for what they have submitted," stressed the minister, explaining that the assessment will be made later. The measure was justified by the fact that the IHRU is unable to respond to the volume of applications received. Of the more than 7,000 applications submitted to the PRR in the area of housing, "more than 6,000 are still pending [...]", which "is worrying", said Miguel Pinto Luz. On the same subject, the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) pointed out the need to accelerate the execution of the funds, acknowledging that "the IHRU has been blocked and is not responding to the applications". However, in statements to Lusa, the president of ANMP, Luísa Salgueiro, recommended "caution" in the application of the term of responsibility to be signed. "We do not want later, nor is it possible [...], for the mayors themselves to be held responsible," she warned. Read Also: Opposition open to negotiating new housing package but with doubts (Portuguese version)