19.11.2022.

European Commission confirms Croatia asked for €700m payment from the RRF scheme

The European Commission stated on Tuesday that it had received Croatia's request for payment of €700 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of the NextGenerationEU scheme, state agency Hina said, citing a press release published on the Commission's website.

“Yesterday, the Commission received the second payment request from Croatia under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for a disbursement of €700 million in financial support (net of pre-financing),” the European Commission said on its website.

Croatia’s overall recovery and resilience plan will be financed by €5.51 billion in grants. Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Croatia implementing the investments and reforms outlined in its recovery and resilience plan.

The latest payment request “relates to 25 milestones and targets, and include the new Social Welfare Act and training of social professionals, as well as the establishment of funding instruments to strengthen access to funding for businesses and a Decision on incentives for the voluntary functional and actual mergers of the local government units (LGUs).”

“It also covers important energy measures such as the assessment of the barriers to higher uptake of renewable energy sources (RES) and the adoption of the Hydrogen Development Strategy.”

“The Commission now has two months to assess the request. It will then send its preliminary assessment of Croatia’s fulfillment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee.”

In September 2021, Croatia received €818 million as the advance payment under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The advance payment was made on the basis of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021 – 2026 (NRRP), which was positively assessed by the European Commission in July 2021.