Luís Montenegro said in Porto on Monday that Portugal has an increasing duty to stop waiting for European funds to develop itself, as he used the launch of a new university status for the city’s polytechnic sector to press a wider economic message. He said the country must prepare now for a harder and more selective EU funding round that begins in 2028.
The prime minister’s remarks came as the Instituto Politécnico do Porto marked its transition to the Universidade Técnica do Porto, with about 20 protesters against the labor package waiting for him on arrival. Montenegro tied the occasion to the next multiannual financing framework, saying the European Union is already discussing the guidelines for the 2028-2032 period and that 2028 is “already there.”
He said the coming framework is heavily focused on the economy, competitiveness and the factors that drive both, and that it will reward projects with greater distinction and excellence rather than offer countries automatic support. No country, he said, can assume in advance that it will be favored with more or less financial backing, which is why Portugal, companies and institutions will have to show credible plans that add value, innovate and push Europe’s economic and commercial capacity further.
That leaves a narrow path for a country that has long depended on cohesion money to modernize infrastructure and institutions. Montenegro did not argue for abandoning those policies, saying Portugal must not waste or neglect them, but he made clear that the old habit of waiting for Brussels to finance development is no longer enough. The message was aimed as much at universities and firms as at government: he said higher education institutions and companies must work together, cooperate with projects across Europe and be ready to compete from the first day.
The timing matters because the funding rules that will shape 2028-2032 are being written now, and the projects that make the cut will have to be ready well before the calendar turns. Montenegro said Portugal needs projects of excellence, vanguard and merit, and that higher education should get a new burst of value and scale. The unanswered question is which sectors, institutions and concrete proposals will be able to meet that standard when the competition opens.
Montenegro used the event to underline the symbolic weight of the Porto university transition as well. He said the last university created in Portugal before this one was the Universidade da Madeira in 1986, and noted that the Council of Ministers approved the creation of the Universidade Técnica do Porto, the Universidade de Leiria and the Universidade do Oeste on 21 May.
