The Prime Minister has submitted to Brussels a consolidated final, ninth and tenth payment request from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) in the amount of €2.7 billion. The end of all measures was 31 August, with the evaluation by the European Commission and the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council, as well as final payments for the remaining 153 indicators, expected by the end of 2026.
Plenković reported that 78 reforms were implemented through the NRRP, with 244 investment indicators realised, and that they have achieved 100 per cent success. Croatia has so far drawn €7.3 billion, and based on the European Commission's confirmation, 100 per cent success was recorded in the implementation of reforms and investments covered by the previous requests.
Since the start of the NRRP, Croatia has been one of the most successful member states in the implementation and use of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the main instrument of the EU's NextGenerationEU package designed to support EU economies after the coronavirus crisis. At 13 per cent of available funds relative to annual GDP, Croatia positioned itself at the top of the European Union, immediately behind Greece, whose share of GDP was 16 per cent.
Plenković stated that they have done their utmost in the past five years in implementing the EU's NextGenerationEU instrument, thereby securing significant funds for investment in various sectors, including post-earthquake recovery. He added that following the submission of the request, the European Commission and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will conduct a final evaluation, with final payments to be made by the end of this year.
The NRRP covers reforms and investments in various areas of society and the state, from public administration, justice, health, the labour market, and social protection, to energy, transport, and digitalisation, and energy efficiency and the strengthening of the competitiveness of the economy. The government concludes that all this has contributed to the improvement of Croatia's credit rating, which major rating agencies have placed in the investment grade category of A.
