Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday visited the exhibition of photographs "EU funds changing Croatia" in downtown Zagreb, noting that EU funds were a great opportunity for development and warning that one had to prepare well for their absorption.

In a statement to the press after seeing the exhibition, Plenkovic recalled the five most valuable projects currently financed by the EU – the Peljesac Bridge, the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, broadband Internet, Dubrovnik Airport, and the Open Scientific Infrastructural Platforms for Innovative Applications in the Economy and Society at Zagreb’s Rudjer Boskovic Institute.

Croatia has signed contracts for 106% of EU funding from the EU’s current multiannual financial framework, 46% of the funding has been paid out and 36% has been verified and those percentages will increase additionally, said Plenkovic.

He recalled that four years ago contracts had been signed for only 9% of the funding while during the term of his government the rate was increased to 106%.

Croatia is in the black by HRK 28 billion in relation to what it has paid into the EU budget, he said.

In the next ten years, Croatia will have €24 billion from EU funds available, not counting funds for projects to be implemented in the next three years, which are financed from the previous financial framework, he said.

“There are ample funds for economic and social development after the Covid-19 crisis. The chance before us is greater than ever and we all have to do our best to make the most of it,” he said.

The exhibition of photos on how EU funds are changing Croatia is held as part of the EU Projects Open Door Day, organised for the fourth consecutive year by the Regional Development and EU Funds Ministry as part of a broader campaign the European Commission has been conducting in all member-states under the slogan “EU in my region”

The exhibition, staged in the Nikola Subic Zrinski Square, was opened on November 9 and will last until November 22.