September 21 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said it has Croatia has submitted its second payment request, for 700 million euro ($695 million) in financial support, under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The request was received on Monday and now the Commission has two months to assess it, it said in a press release on Tuesday. It will then send its preliminary assessment of Croatia's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Council's Economic and Financial Committee.
The second payment request relates to 25 milestones and targets, and include the new Social Welfare Act and training of social professionals, as well as the establishment of funding instruments to strengthen access to funding for businesses and a decision on incentives for the voluntary functional and actual mergers of the local government units. It also covers important energy measures such as the assessment of the barriers to higher uptake of renewable energy sources and the adoption of the hydrogen development strategy.
Croatia's national recovery and resilience plan will be financed by 5.51 billion euro in grants. Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on the country implementing the investments and reforms outlined in its recovery and resilience plan.
The Croatian government said in June it received the first installment of 700 milion euro under the RRF.
($ = 1.0088 euro)