Plenković: We will implement NPOO relying on our experience and political will

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan is important for developing resilience to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government will implement it relying on its experience and political will, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told a press conference after the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The government today adopted the HRK 49 billion National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO) 2021-2026 and sent it to the European Commission for final fine-tuning.

"We want to ensure development and help boost GDP growth," Plenković said. "The idea is that the European Commission approves the Croatian plan so that it can be forwarded to the European Council, after which Croatia would be able to draw an advance of HRK 6.1 billion in the autumn," he added.

Asked if he feared that the plan would not materialise given that many of the reforms had not been implemented in the previous years, he said he expected full implementation of the goals set out in the NPOO.

"We will fulfil this plan with the help of our experience and political will," the prime minister said, citing a considerable improvement in the absorption of EU funds during the term of the present government and in institutional capacity building. 

Plenković said he expected that the European Commission would propose certain changes to the plan and that for the government the quality was more important than the speed of the implementation of the plan. He noted that Croatia had proposed good projects that could be implemented within a short period of time.

Speaking of specific projects, he mentioned investment in the Rimac Automobili company, a biorefinery at Sisak, reconstruction of the Novska-Dugo Selo and Oštarije-Knin-Split railway lines,  modernisation of the Zadar airport, investment in electronic toll collection, the high-speed Internet, hospitals, and distribution centres. HRK 7.5 billion would be invested in the education system.

Text: Hina

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