Benefits for former Matosinho refinery workers

12.3.2023

Question for written answer  E-000839/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Sandra Pereira (The Left)

In reply to question E-002706/2021 on 3 August 2021, the Commission indicated that it had not yet received ‘any request for financial support from EU funds, including the Just Transition Fund (JTF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF), related to the closure of the Matosinhos refinery’ and that Matosinhos had been identified in the 2020 Country Report for Portugal as ‘one of the areas that could benefit from the JTF (...)’.

The only information available regarding the JTF allocation for Portugal is that the Alentejo coast will receive around EUR 99 million. Nothing has been said about environmental or just transition funding relating to the closure of the Matosinhos refinery. Matters have been going from bad to worse since 2021, with many of the redundant workers still unemployed and approaching the end of the period in which they are entitled to the benefits in question.

In view of this:

Has the Commission received any request for JTF, ESF, EGF or other forms of assistance relating to the closure of the refinery?

Submitted: 12.3.2023