“I know my work is a drop in the ocean, but without it the ocean would be smaller.”

(Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

The Operational Programme for Support to the Most Deprived is intended to be an instrument to combat poverty and social exclusion in Portugal. Considering that the main causes are structural, but aggravated by short-term factors, the Programme was designed (focusing on the aforementioned objectives) in a logic of intervention through food support and other basic consumer goods, as well as in the development of accompanying measures that empower the most deprived people at various levels, thus promoting their inclusion.

The Programme aims, through its activity, to reduce situations of vulnerability that put at risk the integration of the most fragile people and households, reinforcing the responses of existing public policies.

This is a mission that will allow us to be even closer to people and contribute, in addition to the work already developed by the Operational Programme Social Inclusion and Employment (PO ISE), to their inclusion and well-being.

Welcome to PO APMC

Managing Authority and its main functions

Decree-Law No 137/2014 of 12 September 2014 establishes the governance model of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for the period 2014-2020, as well as the organisational structure relating to the exercise, inter alia, of the powers of support, monitoring, management, monitoring and evaluation, certification, audit and control, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013, and also lays down the transitional arrangements between the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and Portugal 2020.

Pursuant to Decree-Law No 137/2014 of 12 September 2014, the provisions of that Decree-Law also apply mutatis mutandis to the FEAD, established by Regulation (EU) No 223/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014.

Nevertheless, as a result of being an autonomous fund and taking into account the specific requirements of support for the most deprived, a set of special rules was defined in Ministerial Implementing Order No 190-B/2015 of 26 June 2015 approving the general regulation of the FEAD and the specific regulation of the POAPMC, namely, in the field of resources and programming, monitoring, evaluation and information, and financing, payments and information system.

By means of Resolution of the Council of Ministers (RCM) No 73-B/2014 of 16 December 2014, as amended by MCR No 121/2018 of 19 September 2018, the Mission Structure of PO ISE was created and it was established that the Management Authority of POISE would also have as its mission the management, monitoring and implementation of POAPMC. That SmPC, in its current wording, defined the mission, objectives and competences, the form of appointment of the members of the steering committee, the composition of the technical secretariat and the terms of providing logistical and administrative support to the mission structure.

The Managing Authority shall be responsible for the management, monitoring and implementation of the programme, in accordance with the objectives and results defined and in compliance with the management rules laid down in the applicable European and national legislation, and shall exercise the powers provided for in Decree-Law No 137/2014 of 12 September 2014, in particular those provided for in Article 83(4)(a) with regard to the closure of the Human Potential Operational Programme (POPH), as well as the management, monitoring and implementation of the Operational Programme for Support to the Most Deprived (PO APMC).

The functioning of the Managing Authority is based on a mission structure comprising two bodies: the Steering Committee and the Technical Secretariat. The Executive Committee is made up of a chairman and two executive members, supported by a technical secretariat which, operating under its responsibility, exercises the powers conferred on it, in particular those provided for in Article 29 of Decree-Law No 137/2014 of 12 September 2014.

The members of the Steering Committee were appointed on a proposal from the members of the Government responsible for the following policy areas: employment and social security, gender equality, regional development, health and education.

The Steering Committee of the Managing Authority of OP ISE and OP APMC has the following composition:

Chairman:

• Domingos Jorge Ferreira Lopes

Executive vowels:

• Sandra Lopes de Castro Tavares
• Maria Manuela Félix Florêncio Bessone Mauritti.

The Managing Authority is accountable to the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security and the Minister of Planning, and the logistical and administrative support is provided by the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, which is responsible for formalising applications for Technical Assistance, for the purpose of financing the operating costs of the Managing Authority.

Programmatic Texus of the PO APMC

Version 3.0 – Introduction of the e-card

• POAPMC Programmatic Text (13/08/2021)
• European Commission Implementing Decision C(2021) 6115 approving the Programmatic Text

Previous versions:

Version 2.0 – Reprogramming COVID 19

• POAPMC Programmatic Text (20/11/2020)
• European Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 8275 approving the Programmatic Text

Version 1.3 – Initial

• POAPMC Programmatic Text (17/12/2014)
• European Commission Implementing Decision C(2014) 10066 approving the Programmatic Text