The National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) took as a great strategic plan the qualification of the Portuguese and Portuguese, valuing the knowledge, science, technology and innovation and the promotion of high and sustained levels of economic development and socio-cultural and territorial qualification, a framework for development of equal opportunities and, as well as increasing the efficiency and quality of public institutions.

The pursuit of this major strategic plan, essential to ensure the overcoming of the most significant constraints to the consolidation of a sustained momentum of success in the process of economic development, social and territorial Portugal, is ensured by the implementation, with the support of the Structural and Cohesion Funds, by all operational programmes for the period 2007-2013, three major agendas Operational Issues, which focus on three key areas of intervention, human potential, the factors of competitiveness of the economy and recovery of territory.

The concretisation of a new model of competitiveness, characterised by qualified and differentiated production, using more advanced and specific resources to respond to increasingly sophisticated global demand (international and domestic) and with greater sales potential, expresses the size of the task faced if the Portuguese economy and society are to confront successfully the challenges presented by the combination of the deepening and enlargement of the European union, whose consequences in terms of globalisation are exacerbated by the dynamics of the Asian economies.

The public policies adopted by Portugal must, therefore, be closely focused in order to contribute effectively to the structural adjustments that can stimulate the gains in productivity and competitive capacity which, within the framework of social and territorial cohesion, can contribute to the significant improvement of Portugal's international position.

Closer coordination of macroeconomic and structural policies, on the one hand, and regional and sectoral policies, on the other, in order to pursue rigorous efforts at budgetary consolidation and more effective and selective management of structural funds and public investment, aligned to a full and realistic insertion in the Lisbon Strategy - that is, aimed at a profound renewal of the competitive model of the Portuguese economy - necessarily constitute the core of the Portuguese agenda on economic policy in an enlarged Europe.

QREN - Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional or National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF)

It is within this framework that the structuring guidelines of the QREN/NSRF 2007-2013 lie:

Priority given to the concentration on a small number of Operational Programmes, ensured via their thematic structuring and respective financial dimension;

Guarantee of selectivityin the investment and development measures funded, achieved by rigorous criteria for selecting and hierarchically ordering candidatures;

Maximisation of the economic feasibility and financial sustainability of actions aimed at satisfying the public interest;

Pursuit of territorial cohesion and enhancement, reinforcing the factors of scientific and technological development and the specific economic, socio-cultural and environmental progress of each region and contributing to sustainable and regionally balanced development.

Consistent concentration on strategic management and monitoring of interventions.

GLOBAL DYNAMICS

National and Eu public policies are conditioned by important transversal dynamics that have a determinant influence on changes in contemporary society and, necessarily, those that have occurred in Portugal over the last twenty years.

The nature and orientation of cohesion policy in Portugal in the 2007-2013 period, which embodies the important aspects of national development strategy within the framework of Community structural support, will essentially therefore be faced with challenges and should benefit from opportunities stemming from globalisation, demographic trends, energy tensions and added environmental demands.

The structural dimension of these major dynamics, plus the length of time it takes for their effects to be felt, also constitute factors that condition the effectiveness of the interventions addressed to them by national public policies.

The consequent need to valorise political action implemented at the supra-national level cannot however diminish the fundamental relevance of national public policies - of which of special note is that aimed at addressing the sustainability of public finances, particularly within the framework of the national reform programme that Portugal is pushing through in joint liaison with the other Member States of the European union in pursuit of the fundamental objectives of promoting economic and jobs growth.

These objectives provide a fundamental strategic framework for the intervention of the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund in the 2007-2013 period.