Portugal triggers EU budget safeguard clause over energy crisis

Published on

11/06/2026 - 17:42 GMT+2

Portugal is to activate the safeguard clause of the European Union (EU) budget rules, as authorised by Brussels. This will allow the country to temporarily shoulder additional energy-related costs arising from the current crisis, without this being treated as a breach.

“The Commission understands, and it is also being requested in several countries, that it must now create an exemption clause, as it did for defence spending rules. We support that decision and we will trigger that clause, just as we did for defence,” announced the Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, as quoted by Lusa.

On arrival for the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento told Portuguese journalists that, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission, Portugal is the fifth country in the European Union that provides the most support in proportion to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).