ZAGREB, 28 Jan (Hina) – Minister Šime Erlić informed the parliament on Tuesday that Croatia has successfully drawn funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), and that the country is in a positive balance of €16.5 billion  when looking at the balance of contributions and disbursements from the EU budget.

During the debate on amendments to the Law on the Institutional Framework for the Use of European Union Funds in Croatia, the Regional Development and EU Funds Minister said that Croatia is exceptionally good at drawing funds under the NRRP currently first in Europe, “and in terms of drawing all tranches of funds, we are in a positive balance of €16.5 billion.”

“We have a dynamic year ahead of us, in which we expect new calls. Over 200 new calls are planned to be advertised, worth more than €4 billion, which will have a direct impact on the Croatian economy and stimulate development processes across the entire country,” said Erlić.

The minister went on to say that Croatia has used all the funds available in the 2014-2020 financial perspective and, in 2024, fully justified 100% of all available funds from the first financial perspective.

The draft amendments to the law, which the MPs discussed and supported, relate to harmonising the terminology and content of the Hungary-Croatia cross-border cooperation programme.

The law sets the legal framework for the functioning of all agencies in the European Union fund implementation system (ministries, agencies, and others), said Erlić, noting that there are just over 2,500 employees in this system responsible for the implementation of EU funds.