In the post-election battle for top EU jobs, Portugal is eyeing a portfolio with a big pot of cash.

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has targeted the regional policy post for his country's next European commissioner — the job that oversees some of the EU's biggest spending programs.

Costa's plan reflects the fact that EU governments are looking beyond this week's European Parliament election and have already been maneuvering to claim posts in the next European Commission, due to take office on November 1.

Costa signaled his intentions by putting former Planning and Infrastructure Minister Pedro Marques at the head of his Socialist Party's list for the European Parliament election.

Few believe that Marques was moved from his Cabinet post in February just to become an MEP. On the contrary, his old ministerial portfolio makes him well qualified for a similar role at EU level.

“The prime minister has a clear interest in the cohesion funds’ portfolio and Pedro Marques is a potential candidate for the job,” a Portuguese government official told POLITICO. “Marques’ European ambition is well known. He had the funds’ portfolio in government. And his experience is an advantage for getting the job.”

Costa's plan, first reported by newspaper Público, would put the Portuguese commissioner in charge of cohesion programs, intended to boost infrastructure and help poorer parts of Europe develop economically. Under current Commission plans, cohesion policy would account for some €330 billion in the EU's next long-term budget from 2021-2027. That would make it the single biggest slice of the budget, about a third of the total, taking over the top position long held by agriculture.

Such spending is particularly valuable to Portugal. Since joining the European Union, the country has benefited from over €100 billion in EU cohesion funds. Between 2015 and 2017, Portugal was the EU country most dependent on cohesion funding, which made up over 84 percent of total public investment in the country.

But taking the regional policy job also carries significant risks. The current Commission has proposed cutting overall cohesion spending by about 12 percent in the next budget cycle and some countries will suffer much steeper losses.

Marques could find himself as the frontman for unpopular cuts in a range of countries — including his own. Portugal faces a reduction of 7 percent in cohesion funding under the Commission's blueprint, which has not yet been approved by EU leaders or the European Parliament.

"We are not happy with the proposal of the Commission for Portugal,” Margarida Marques, vice president of the Portuguese parliament’s committee on European affairs, told POLITICO.

By pushing for a Portuguese regional policy commissioner, Costa may be hoping to influence how regional funds are spent in the future.

'Fake candidate'

On paper, at least, Marques is a strong candidate for the regional policy post, currently held by Corina Crețu of Romania. He has spent more than two decades in public office, renegotiated Portugal's structural and cohesion funds in the current multiannual program — called Portugal 2020 — and started discussions on the upcoming period between 2021 and 2027.

He "is someone who has a deep knowledge of the European institutions and has worked with them in the areas of the European Social Fund, the ERDF [European Regional Development Fund] or the cohesion funds," said Costa when he presented Marques as his party's lead candidate for the EU election in February.

But the fact that Marques is being tipped as a commissioner while ostensibly running for a seat in the European Parliament has injected extra controversy into the election campaign.

In a televised debate, Paulo Rangel, the lead candidate of the center-right Social Democrats (PSD), called Marques “a fake candidate for the European Parliament.”

“He does not want to go to the European Parliament, he wants to go to the Commission,” Rangel declared.

Rangel has called on Costa to keep Research, Science and Innovation Commissioner Carlos Moedas as the country’s representative in the Commission. Moedas is a senior member of the PSD.

Rangel has also taken aim at a video recorded by Romania's Crețu that praises Marques. In the two-minute video, she declares: “I must say that Pedro Marques is also a great negotiator. He was a fierce defender of cohesion policy funds always having in mind the general interests of Europe and, of course, of Portugal.”

The video raised questions about whether Crețu adhered to the Commission's code of conduct in recording a video used by a fellow center-left politician in his election campaign. The Commission insisted everything was in order and the message was simply meant "to highlight the good cooperation between the European Commission and the Portuguese authorities."

But Rangel seized on the video to argue the Portuguese Socialist was only too willing to accept funding cuts from Brussels.

"She just has to say thank you. Pedro Marques accepted a decrease of 7 percent in structural funds. What any commissioner wants is a minister who does not create problems," he said.

Marques himself has not confirmed Costa's plan to put him in the regional policy job. But he has done little to discourage speculation in that direction.

“Our prime minister has already said that he sees this as a good portfolio for Portugal in the next European Commission, but this question is not yet on the table,” he said at a recent meeting with foreign reporters in Lisbon.

"However, if my party gained more strength in the European elections in Portugal, my prime minister in the European Council — and above all in the negotiations with our political family — would have a stronger hand in the choice of portfolios in the European Commission,” he added.

Costa's party is on course to record a good result in the election, which would increase its stature in the center-left group in the European Parliament.

According to latest polls, the Socialists lead with around 33 percent support, compared to about 28 percent for the PSD. That would give them nine seats in the Parliament — an increase of one on the last election — while the PSD would have one fewer.

Plan B ... and C?

Marques was not the only minister who switched from government to the Socialists' election list in a February reshuffle. Maria Manuel Leitão Marques, formerly the minister responsible for modernizing public administration, is also running in the European election and could serve as a back-up option for a Commission post.

In an interview with Público, Leitão Marques did not confirm if she would like to be a commissioner — but she did say she would like very much to “modernize the European Union’s administration.”

Calls for gender parity in top EU jobs could work in Leitão Marques’ favor.

“Leitão Marques ticks all the boxes as Plan B. Not only does she have credibility for her work as minister, she is also a woman. If Portugal is pressed to present a woman as commissioner in negotiations, she would be a plus within a gender equality agenda,” the government official told POLITICO.

Meanwhile, Costa himself has played down suggestions he could be a secret Plan C. The prime minister has won admirers across Europe's center left and beyond for building an unconventional but stable coalition, leading Portugal out of economic crisis and regularly outmaneuvering the opposition — as he did in a recent row over teachers' pay.

A recent Financial Times story said he could be a surprise contender for a top EU job. But at an EU summit in Sibiu, Romania, earlier this month, Costa said he intends to continue in his current role as prime minister.

“It is very flattering, but I am not a candidate for anything other than the functions I hold in Portugal,” he said.

Lili Bayer and Paul Ames contributed reporting.