“We, Portugal, have an increasing obligation, without wasting or neglecting cohesion policies, to rise above the need to be permanently waiting for [European] funds so that we can develop, so that we can finance our investment,” said Luis Montenegro, in Porto, to mark the transition of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto to the Technical University of Porto.
The head of government, who was greeted by about 20 protesters against the labour package upon arrival, warned that the guidelines for the next multiannual financial framework, the four-year period 2028-2032, are currently being discussed in the European Union: “We are halfway through 2026. The year 2028, when this financial framework will begin, is just around the corner,” he warned.
Regarding the next European Union funding framework, Luis Montenegro indicated that “it is very much focused on the economy, on competitiveness, on competitiveness factors and on rewarding (…), financing the most distinguished projects, with excellence.”
“There is no country that has any guarantee from the outset that, in this plan, it will be more or less blessed with financial capacity,” he stated.
Therefore, he warned, the country, companies, and institutions will have to “provably present credible projects, projects that add value, that innovate, that take Europe’s capacity to assert itself further on the economic and commercial level.”
“And that’s where our Higher Education institutions and our companies come in, in how they must collaborate to present valid projects on a European scale and in how they must cooperate with projects across Europe,” he said.
“We have to prepare the projects now, so that we can be able, on day one, to compete with other European countries, or in collaboration and cooperation with them and their institutions, to have projects of excellence, of cutting-edge merit, so that we can also be at the forefront of development,” he pointed out.
The Prime Minister also recalled that no University had been created in Portugal since 1986; the last one was the University of Madeira.
“This is the time for us to give Higher Education in Portugal a new breath of value creation, scale creation, and capacity creation.”
The creation of the Technical University of Porto was approved by the Council of Ministers on May 21st, along with the creation of the University of Leiria and the University of Oeste, both of which are polytechnic institutes.