Croatia will soon receive over €800 million to start implementing projects from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Athens on Friday after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“We expect in the days ahead a concrete decision on the payment of an advance of more than €800 million to start implementing the projects we submitted,” he said.

In July, the Commission approved Croatia’s €6.3 billion National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which could increase GDP by 2.9% and create 21,000 jobs by 2026.

“That programme should facilitate a faster economic recovery and a clear development course, the so-called double transition, both digital and green,” said the prime minister.

He and von der Leyen also talked about COVID-19, post-earthquake reconstruction, the introduction of the euro in Croatia and Croatia’s Schengen membership bid.

Plenkovic said she “confirmed that the European Commission stands strongly by Croatia’s ambition to introduce the euro as its currency at the beginning of 2023.”

He reiterated that Croatia had met all the Schengen entry requirements and expected to join the area in 2022. “The Commission supports us. We want to get the consensus of the other member states as well, so that we achieve this second goal of deeper integration within the EU next year.”

Plenkovic, Mitsotakis talk economic cooperation

Ahead of an EU MED9 summit, the Croatian prime minister met with the host, his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Greek-Croatian trade is increasing and now stands at €300 million. Plenkovic said there was room for increasing it. “We are pleased that the Greek company Avax is among those building the access roads to Peljesac Bridge. Trust between economic operators increases that way.”

He said talks on the Greek airline Aegean’s interest in a strategic partnership with Croatia Airlines were expected to be “renewed” in the months ahead.

Croatia is grateful for Greece’s help after the December earthquake and Greece appreciates that Croatia sent planes and backup to fight the wildfires this summer, Plenkovic said. “Our team was there seven days. They appreciate that very much, it was the biggest wildfire they had in recent years.”