Croatia submitted a request for €700 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) on 24 July 2023, based on the achievement of 32 milestones and 13 targets. Croatia’s membership of the European Union has brought the country a total of €12 billion since 2013, when it became part of the bloc.

The latest tranche depends on Croatia meeting targets in healthcare, science and higher education, research and innovation, labour market, waste management, renewable energy sources, energy renovation of buildings, green and digital transition of tourism, and reducing administrative burden on the economy. The Commission has assessed this information and will send its positive preliminary assessment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) for its opinion.

The Commission will then adopt the final decision on the disbursement of the financial contribution through a comitology committee. Further payment requests by Croatia will be assessed based on the fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in the Council Implementing Decision.

The milestones and targets achieved by Croatia effectively support the green transition. Reforms include the adoption of a regulation to improve renewable energy sources, improved water and waste management frameworks, and the development of sustainable tourism strategies. Two calls were launched to finance the green and digital transition of the tourism sector, and a national skills development plan was adopted to develop green jobs related to energy efficiency and post-earthquake reconstruction. Over €66 million has been awarded for energy renovation of public and private buildings, and an online one-stop-shop for energy renovation and seismic reinforcement has been set up to reduce administrative burden for applicants.

Croatia has also taken measures that contribute to the digital transition, such as adopting a new Digital Croatia strategy, setting up platforms for central interoperability, upgrading the State cloud, digitising archives of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, and procuring more than 300 units of seismic equipment to strengthen the digital capacity of the Croatian Seismologic Survey.

In addition, Croatia has implemented reforms in science and higher education, labor market, health care, and public administration capacity. The implementation of the Croatian recovery and resilience plan is on the right path due to the satisfactory fulfilment of the milestones and targets under the third payment request.