The EC on Friday published the results of the second CEF call for proposals, which resulted in the approval of 195 projects worth EUR 6.7 billion.
CEF is a new instrument for the period 2014-2020, intended for investment in EU infrastructure priorities in the areas of transport, energy and digital technology. Its purpose is to strengthen and modernise the current infrastructure network in the EU. CEF provides funding only for projects that have a cross-border dimension. In the period from 2014 to 2016 Croatia will have EUR 456 million available from CEF. In the second CEF call for proposals, Croatia applied with 17 projects and 12 were approved.
EC officials say that with its 12 projects Croatia has used up 76% of its national envelope. Slightly more than EUR 105 million remains available. The third call for proposals is expected in the autumn, which will be an opportunity for the remaining funds to be absorbed, on the condition project proposals are good, an EC expert in charge of Croatia said. If there are no such projects, the remaining funds may be allocated for quality projects in other member-countries.
The biggest of the 12 approved projects is a project to modernise and build a second, 43.2 kilometre track of the railway line Krizevci-Koprivnica-Hungarian border, worth EUR 241,346,218.
The railway route is part of the Mediterranean corridor, one of the nine corridors of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
The second biggest project is also on that corridor - the Rijeka Port's container terminal "Zagreb Pier" - which was allocated EUR 26,849,057. A total of 3,132,850 euros was approved for the port's Brsica terminal.
A project to improve air traffic management was given EUR 11,376,903 and another air transport project, Zagreb Airport, was given EUR 3,726,145.
A total of EUR 7,194,077 million was approved for the Svilaj Bridge, to be built on the Sava River, connecting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A project for the cross-border information networking on the Mediterranean corridor between Croatia and neighbouring countries, including the urban hubs of Zagreb and Rijeka, was given EUR 9,312,600.
A project to align river navigation information systems covering all EU member-countries and Serbia was given EUR 1,323,960.
A project covering Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the fast charging of electric cars was given EUR 1,687,439.
Funding for two more projects in the amount of less than one million euros in total was approved as well.