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BRUSSELS – The Budget Committee and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament requested on Tuesday that the implementation of projects in the mature phase funded by recovery and resilience funds be extended by a year and a half.
According to the existing regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the deadline for disbursement of funds is December 31, 2026, which in practice means that the project must be completed by August 31, 2026, at the latest, for the Commission to approve the disbursement. This would mean that all projects not completed by the end of August next year are at risk of not receiving the approved funds.
The two committees voted on a text during a joint session calling for an “18-month extension of mature projects, if necessary, by amending the RRF regulation.”
This report will be voted on at the plenary session of the European Parliament in June.
MEPs express concern that the short timeframe for implementing the remaining funds from the RRF poses a challenge for completing key reforms, large investments, and innovative projects that will be finalized in the last years of the RRF.
Extending the deadline is extremely important for all member states, including Croatia, which is among the best in implementing the national recovery and resilience plan.
For a significant number of ongoing projects in Croatia, there is a risk that they will not be completed by the end of August next year.
Therefore, extending the deadline for implementation would allow for the completion of started projects and avoid potential loss of funds.
According to the latest government report, a total of 157 investments and 78 reforms are currently being implemented in Croatia, funded by the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.
By the end of October 2024, 47 percent of available funds (grants and loans) have been spent, which implies that more than half of the projects are still not completed. (May 20, 2025)