"It's a 2 billion budget, which is a rather large budget, and which responds to this enormous set of needs. And the [Investment] Plan has a total of 739 million euros, which also corresponds to this set of such pressing needs", said today the Regional Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities.

Paulo Estêvão was speaking to journalists in the city of Horta, on the island of Faial, after delivering the documents to the president of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Luís Garcia.

According to the official, the transfers from the Republic are "around 300 to 370 million euros".

"Then we have the public service obligations, which are 10 million euros, and what is expected is that, and which is already contemplated as well, [...] are the 55 million euros, which are the responsibility of the Republic, [and] which were not transferred by the previous Government in relation to hurricane Lorenzo", said Paulo Estêvão.

Questioned about the differences between the new document and the one presented in November 2023, the official admitted that "it has no major changes".

"It only has some impact from a budgetary point of view at the level of health and education, where there is an increase in expenditure at this level and, therefore, there is an adjustment to reinforce these sectors", he explained.

"Everything else in this set of responsibilities remains intact. In other words, the large set of responsibilities that we had in the previous Plan and also in the previous Budget", explained the regional secretary of the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition Government.

Paulo Estêvão also admitted that the documents delivered today to the Parliament of the Azores "are elements of continuity".

"It was a commitment by the [Regional] Government to maintain the Budget that was presented and that was not passed here [in the regional parliament] and that was made unfeasible by the opposition forces, especially by the Socialist Party. And, therefore, the commitment that was presented by the coalition was to present again a Budget that contemplated the main guidelines and the commitments assumed by the Government", he justified.

Paulo Estêvão also stated that the proposal of the executive led by José Manuel Bolieiro includes "a set of guarantees" that had already been given, such as, for example, the valorisation of the public service and the maintenance of taxes at current levels.

The maintenance of the Azores Tariff and the policy of ending the apportionments were other measures highlighted by the official, who is also the leader of the PPM/Azores.

The objective of the Regional Government, he also stressed, is to "keep the region growing economically", keep unemployment "so low" and preserve "the largest number of employees ever in the history of the Azores", among other aspects.

It is the second time that the regional Government led by José Manuel Bolieiro presents a preliminary proposal for an Investment Plan for this year, after the previous one was rejected in the Legislative Assembly, in November, with the votes against from PS, BE and IL and the abstention of Chega and PAN, which led the President of the Republic to call early elections.

The new coalition government of PSD, CDS-PP and PPM, resulting from the early legislative elections of 4 February, governs the region without an absolute majority in the Azorean parliament and, therefore, needs to negotiate the support of some parties with parliamentary seats to approve its proposals.

The Government's Programme was approved in March in parliament, with the favourable votes of the three parties that form the executive, the abstention of Chega, IL and PAN and the votes against from PS and BE.

The debate and voting on the proposals for the Plan and Budget for 2024 are scheduled for 21 May.

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