The European Investment Bank (EIB) on Thursday announced further assistance to earthquake victims in the Banovina region of central Croatia in rebuilding their homes and providing technical and advisory support.

The EIB was among the first to come to the aid of people in Banovina, providing container homes and donations, following a string of  earthquakes that struck the region at the end of 2020.

The head of the EIB Group Office in Zagreb, Anton Kovacev, accompanied by Zdravko Zrinusic and Stipe Zupan, state secretaries at the Ministry of Finance, on Thursday visited several families in Lekenik and Petrinja living in container homes donated by the EIB.

The EIB Group has so far donated €255,000 in its own funding and a donation from EIB staff for temporary housing for 30 families left homeless by the earthquake, Kovacev said.

Seventy-eight people are currently staying in temporary accommodation while awaiting the reconstruction of their homes. Container homes have been donated to families in Lekenik, Glina, Petrinja, Sisak, Hrvatska Kostajnica, Sunja, and Dvor.

Kovacev said he was proud of the solidarity demonstrated by his colleagues and the EIB Institute in providing a prompt response.

Shortly after the earthquakes in Zagreb and Banovina, the EIB offered assistance to the Croatian government in rebuilding devastated homes and buildings through financing reconstruction and providing technical and advisory support to help people get their lives back to normal.

According to a press release circulated to reporters who covered the visit of the EIB delegation to Lekenik, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric thanked the EIB and its staff for the assistance, saying that their donation showed the EIB’s commitment to strengthening solidarity within the European Union as one of the Union’s basic values.

“The EIB is our important partner in stimulating investment in many sectors and we expect our successful cooperation to continue in the future to further promote growth in Croatia,” Maric said.

In addition to a smaller donation by EIB staff for the maternity ward at Zagreb’s Petrova Street Hospital, provided after the March 2020 earthquake, the EIB donation was another major contribution to alleviating the consequences of the earthquakes in Croatia.

In Lekenik, as many as 121 families have been granted temporary accommodation. Mayor Ivica Perovic and Municipal Council Chairman Marin Cacic informed the guests about the reconstruction process, saying that the municipal administration was helping in infrastructure reconstruction and providing other forms of assistance to the earthquake victims.