ZAGREB, May 21, 2020 – The Croatian government support the establishment of a €500 billion European fund to help repair the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, Jutarnji List daily reports on Thursday, noting that the money to be obtained from the fund could be used for recovery in the tourism and transport sectors.
The government supports the Franco-German rescue plan, which, according to the proposal put forward by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, envisages the establishment of a €500 billion rescue fund which would be set up as part of the EU budget for the period 2021-2027 and be financed with loans to be sought by the European Commission, the daily says.
The money form the fund would be directed to regions and sectors worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We welcome the initiative, notably in the segment that refers to the sustainable recovery of the worst-hit EU sectors and regions. There are sectors in Croatia that have been affected, we have been affected as a country, and we also expect funding from the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for cohesion policy,” Zvonimir Savic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s special advisor on economic affairs, told the daily.
Savic added that the amount that was being proposed was significant and that Croatia considered as important the fact that it would be part of the new MFF.
The initiative itself is a clear message of European solidarity and it is important that the proposal is being put in the context of the MFF because time must not be wasted, he said.
The new EU budget goes into force in 2021 and now is the ideal time for talks on the rescue plan, which, among other things, envisages strengthening the EU’s competences in the health sector, supporting the single internal market and, most importantly, supporting sectors and regions affected the most by the pandemic, Savic said.
