Croatia receives advance from EC's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism

Croatia received an advance on its overall financial envelope from the European Commission’s Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, in line with Croatia’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels today European Commission spokesperson Veerle Nuyts said that commission had dispersed 818 million Euros to Croatia on Tuesday. Nuyts went on to say that roughly six billion Kuna that Croatia received in the form of a direct payment into the state budget, will be used to help initiate key investment and reforms that are outlined in Croatia's Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's economic advisor, Zvonimir Savić, characterized it as a historic sum of money: “This is the biggest individual sum of money that Croatia has received since joining the European Union. The important thing to point out is the funds will directed towards 146 investments on the basis of the tempo outlined in the Recovery and Resilience Plan's implementation schedule.”

He added that the funds will be directed first and foremost to those projects that are ready for implementation and have the highest chance of success: “This deals with support for an innovative project for research into the development of autonomous vehicles, followed very shortly by investment into a broad infrastructure network and access to the 5G web, energy efficiency aid for businesses, and water management projects.”

Savić went on to note that whether or not Croatia will receive the remaining funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism in installments paid out every six months will depend on depend on whether or not it has met the criteria it agreed to in its National Recovery and Resilience Plan: “What we expect from this advance, insomuch as everything goes as planned and we meet all of our milestones, is that by mid-2023 we could draw almost half of the total financial envelope of 6.3 billion Euros.”

All of the reforms and investments must be completed by August 31st of 2026.

Source: HRT