EN

Workshop for beneficiaries of European Union Solidarity Fund

08.12.2022.

The workshop for grant beneficiaries under the call “Clean-up of the areas struck by disaster, including natural areas in line with, as appropriate, the ecosystem-based approach” was held on the premises of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.

The value of the call is HRK 81,850,000.00, while the total amount of the grant available in the State budget has been secured from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF). The aim of the call is to compensate the resources spent on clearing up of the areas struck by the earthquake and restoring the utility infrastructure into working order as before the disaster.

The welcome speech was held by Sanja Jelačić, the head of Intermediate Body at the Fund in charge of controlling procurement procedures, and financial and technical verification of EU projects. After greeting the representatives of Sisak-Moslavina County, the Town of Sisak, the Town of Petrinja, State Geodetic Administration, Ministry of Interior, and others, Mrs Jelačić said: “Since we have extensive our experience in monitoring EU programmes, we organised these workshops to help the beneficiaries in precluding any potential uncertainties that could arise during project implementation.”

The head of the sector at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Maja Buterin Kranjec emphasised the importance of the workshops for grant beneficiaries: “Workshops are the opportunity to explain the rules to beneficiaries, to elucidate the most common mistakes so that the beneficiaries can avoid them, and consequently speed up the process of withdrawing grant funding.”

The implementation framework and the experiences so far were clarified by the staff from the Fund’s Intermediate Body: Brigita Crnković on behalf of the Department for procurement control,  Slavica Lulić as the representative of the Department for financial and economic verification, Maša Brezovac from the Department for system control, and Ivan Majcen from the Department for technical verification of environmental and nature protection.

Eligible activities under this call include the removal of parts of buildings, equipment and plants that were destroyed and/or damaged in the earthquake using adequate machinery and vehicles, with the aim of preventing further damage and protecting human health and life.