The friends of cohesion want new EU priorities paid for with new revenue and limited joint debt, not cuts, and an end to rebates for the biggest contributors. The six net payers want hundreds of billions cut.
Overdue public bills rose 294 million euros in August alone, after a June law cut the grace period from 90 days to 30. The public accounts' surplus is down to 249 million euros.
Created in the 2020 budget, the contribution of up to 4 percent on public sales has raised more than 99 million euros. APORMED also wants a clause to pass on costs that rose 15 to 40 percent.
The former finance minister and Bank of Portugal governor says the surplus only exists thanks to Social Security, that Portugal squandered its cushion, and that politics needs a new "three-legged table".
At the informal Ecofin in Dublin, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said Portugal has no absolute red lines on the own resources meant to fund the 2028 to 2034 EU budget. On the 200 billion euros of frozen Russian assets, he said there is a line the euro cannot survive crossing.
Parliament's budget office reports a two billion euro swing against last year, almost all of it a cash-basis effect from paying off overdue SNS supplier bills. Social Security, meanwhile, banked its strongest seven months in a decade.
Portugal's central public accounts swung to a €1,547.7 million deficit through April after a €1,134.3 million SNS arrears settlement reversed March's surplus. Revenue grew 5.7%, expenditure 10.5%, tax revenue Jan-April hit €17,652.1 million.
