Brussels, 1 September 2023
Yesterday, Croatia submitted a request to the Commission to modify its recovery and resilience plan, to which it also wishes to add a REPowerEU chapter.
The REPowerEU chapter covers measures related to energy security, uptake of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency of buildings, transport and fossil-free hydrogen. Seven new reforms and 12 new investments to deliver on the REPowerEU objectives are included, as well as eight existing measures which have been scaled up.
Croatia’s proposed modification of the plan, which will now be assessed by the Commission, also foresees the modification of 39 planned measures, and increased funding for some measures outside the REPowerEU chapter.
Croatia’s request to modify its plan is based on the need to factor in the high inflation experienced in 2022, supply chain disruptions, the request to take up loans, and the downward revision of its maximum Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grant allocation, from €6.3 billion to €5.5 billion. The revision is part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key and reflects Croatia’s comparatively better economic outcome in 2020 and 2021 than initially foreseen.
Croatia’s proposed modified plan includes a request to take up €4.4 billion in additional loans. Together with Croatia’s RRF and REPowerEU grants allocation (€5.5 billion and €269 million respectively) and its share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (€7.2 million) that Croatia requested to transfer to its recovery and resilience plan, the submitted modified plan is worth a total of €10.2 billion.
The Commission now has up to two months to assess whether the modified plan still fulfils all the assessment criteria stipulated in the RRF Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will make a proposal for an amended Council Implementing Decision to reflect the changes to the Croatian plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to endorse the Commission’s assessment.
More information on the process concerning REPowerEU chapters and the revision of recovery and resilience plans can be found in this Q&A.
Source – EU Commission