The concerted action in fighting Covid pandemic is very important for the health of citizens of the EU and for European economies, and it is necessary to wrap up the legislative job concerning the Multiannual Financial Framework and the Recovery Facility, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday.

Plenkovic explained that those processes should step up so that the funds could be disbursed as of the start of the next year.

“It is very important to hammer out the remaining legislative steps to make sure that we can start using the funds from the Multiannual Financial Framework and the Recovery and Resilience Facility at the beginning of the next year,” the Croatian premier said in Brussels where he was attending the ongoing EU summit meeting.

In July, the Union’s leader concluded a political deal on the 2021-2027 budget worth 1074 billion euros and the Recovery Facility in the amount of 750 billion euros, which will be ditributed as 390 billion in grants and 360 billion in loans.

The legislative procedure is within the realm of the European Council and the European Parliament. Currently, the negotiations to this effect seem to go on on a slow pace and the Council and the Parliament are accusing each other for the slow progress.