"The country can worry about many things, but it doesn't need to worry about the RRP. [...] Portugal will not lose a single euro of the funds available to us," assured Manuel Castro Almeida, who is being questioned in parliament at a procedural hearing, just days after appearing before the Committee on Economy and Territorial Cohesion to provide clarification on the RRP.

Last week, the governor had already assured that the RRP's implementation is under control, with deadlines being met and, in some cases, even brought forward.

Manuel Castro Almeida explained that the ongoing RRP review does not aim to eliminate targets, but rather to reduce some milestones "that are unnecessary for the final result." In other words, "we're not reducing ambition, we're reducing the bureaucracy associated with verifying milestones," he noted.

"After presenting the RRP review, we will submit the eighth payment request, which has its own defined milestones and targets. In this case, we will, with high probability, bring forward in the eighth payment request a dozen milestones and targets that were planned for the ninth and tenth payment requests," the minister added.