Croatia has drawn 8.41 billion euros from European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) from 2013 until November 3 of this year, which is 78.4 percent of the allocated funds from EU funds, while the state budget is in surplus by 67.8 billion kuna, it was announced on Thursday by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds.
Minister Nataša Tramišak presented a new report on the utilization of ESIF funds at the government session on Thursday, which was subsequently adopted, according to the announcement. As reminded by the ministry, a total of 10.73 billion euros or 80.85 billion kuna was available to Croatia from ESIF for the period 2014 – 2020.
As of November 3 of this year, projects worth 13.74 billion euros or 103.5 billion kuna have been contracted, which is 128 percent of the allocated funds.
A total of 8.41 billion euros or 63.4 billion kuna has been paid out, which is 78.4 percent of the allocated funds, and 6.9 billion euros (52.02 billion kuna) has been certified, which is 64.34 percent of the allocated funds.
If we add 763.17 million euros from REACT EU and 597.56 million euros added to the Rural Development Program to the original allocation of ESI funds of 10.73 billion kuna for 2014 – 2020, the total allocation until 2023 is 12.09 billion euros.
In the period from 2013 to October 20 of this year, the difference between the funds paid from the EU budget into the Croatian budget and the funds paid from the Croatian budget into the EU budget amounts to 56.4 billion kuna in favor of the Croatian budget. Including the paid advance for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO), Croatia is in surplus by 67.8 billion kuna, the ministry’s announcement states.
