WIREDGOV

The European Commission has today endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Croatia's payment request for €700 million in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU.

On 15 March, Croatia submitted to the Commission a payment request based on the achievement of the 33 milestones and one target selected in the Council Implementing Decision for the first instalment. They cover reforms and investments in the areas of health, social policy, adult education, public administration, anti-corruption, fiscal, audit and control, anti-money laundering, energy, transport, water and waste management as well as energy efficiency of buildings.

With their request, the Croatian authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the fulfilment of the 34 milestones and targets. The Commission has thoroughly assessed this information before presenting its positive preliminary assessment of the payment request.

The Croatian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures in six thematic components. The plan will be supported by up to €6.3 billion in grants, 13% of which (€818 million) was disbursed to Croatia in pre-financing on 28 September 2021.

Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Member States implementing the investments and reforms outlined in their respective recovery and resilience plans.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its positive preliminary assessment of Croatia's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), asking for its opinion. The EFC's opinion, to be delivered within a maximum of four weeks, should be taken into account in the Commission's assessment. Following the EFC's opinion, the Commission will adopt the final decision on the disbursement of the financial contribution, in accordance with the examination procedure, through a comitology committee. Following the adoption of the decision by the Commission, the disbursement to Croatia can take place.

The Commission will assess further payment requests by Croatia based on the fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in the Council Implementing Decision, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms.

The amounts disbursed to Member States are published in the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which shows progress in the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans.

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