Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that Croatia "had never before had so much money available from EU grants," commenting on the 47.5 billion kuna (€6.3 billion) EU funding approved for Croatia, state agency Hina reported.

“Never before have we had this much money available from EU grants. That is a huge incentive for us. We started working on the plan a year ago and we have been given a chance that we will use in the 2021-26 period,” said Plenkovic, announcing also that the reconstruction of Zagreb, hit by an earthquake in March 2020, would be “accelerated.”

Plenkovic was on an official visit to Buzet in Istria, where he attended the official opening of the last section of the Istrian motorway to the Ucka tunnel. He also visited the Cimos company which employs 800 people and is the largest company in the area.

EU finance ministers on Monday “confirmed the positive assessments of national recovery and resilience plans for four member states, including Croatia, and initiated a written procedure for their approval,” Hina said.

“We discussed the Buzet ring-road, a 16 million kuna investment. That is a huge investment for Buzet… Cimos is the backbone of Buzet’s economy. We will see what we can do, in addition to job-keeping measures, to support its production and export,” Plenkovic said after meeting with Mayor Damir Kajin.

Kajin “expressed satisfaction with the talks and promises, and said that without the support of the competent ministries the town would not be able to afford such large investments,” Hina reported. It is unclear how exactly his satisfaction was expressed.

“Cooperation with the government is fantastic… As for the government’s support to businesses affected by Covid-19, Cimos has received €1.4 million. Without that, it would not have been able to operate. Buzet’s economy and entrepreneurs have been given over €4 million,” said Kajin.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)