LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), July 26 (SeeNews) – Croatia and Slovenia will soon be able to start receiving funds under their recovery and resilience plans (RRPs), Slovenia's Finance Minister Andrej Sircelj said on Monday after an informal meeting of the EU economy and finance ministers.
“Good news for four more member states – Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Slovenia. Following the approval of first 12 decisions on national plans earlier this month, we swiftly continued our work so that these member states could start receiving support for implementing their planned reforms and investments as soon as possible,” Sircelj said in a press release published by the Council of the EU after the meeting.
Slovenia assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council on July 1.
At their meeting the ministers welcomed the assessment of the national recovery and resilience plans of Croatia and Slovenia, as well as the plans of Cyprus and Lithuania. The Council of the EU will adopt its implementing decisions on the approval of these plans by written procedure shortly after the meeting, according to the press release.
"Following the formal adoption of the decisions, this second batch of member states will be able to use the facility’s funds to foster their economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. All four member states requested pre-financing from their allocated funds, which will be disbursed after the signing of bilateral grant and loan agreements."
The European Commission said earlier this month that the EU is going to disburse 1.8 billion euro ($2.1 billion) in grants and 705 million euro in loans under the Slovenian Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to help the country emerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic. Croatia is expected to receive a grant of 6.3 billion euro under its RRF.
($=0.848 euro)