The European Commission has decided to award €319 million in grants to Croatia to help it repair damage caused by the 29 December 2020 earthquake in the central region of Banovina.

The EC said on Friday that it had adopted a decision to award Croatia grants from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) based on the country’s application for the compensation of funds used to repair damage caused by the 29 December earthquake, the Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The EC decision is a draft that will be forwarded to the European Parliament and Council of the EU for further proceedings and the payment will be made once those proceedings are completed.

The ministry recalls that in August 2021 Croatia received a part of an advance in the amount of €41.325 million and under the EC’s draft decision, the total amount of grants for damage repair is €319,192,359.

Also, Croatia has so far received €683.7 million in grants to repair damage caused by the 22 March 2020 earthquake in Zagreb. The total amount of grants for earthquake damage repair to be obtained from the EUSF is more than a billion euros, the ministry said.