ZAGREB, 31 March 2022 - Croatia has surpassed nine EU member states in terms of EU funds absorbed since 2020 and now ranks 19th, the Regional Development and EU Funds Ministry said on Thursday.

According to Cohesion Data, the European Commission platform on finances and achievements under the European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020, in 2020 Croatia ranked 27th among the EU's then 28 countries in terms of payments.

Croatia is better at absorbing funds than Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Romania, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Austria. Lithuania has absorbed the most EU funds.

In the 2014-20 period, Croatia had €10.73 billion from ESIF at its disposal. By 24 March 2022, projects worth €13.4 billion were contracted, or 124.91% of the allocation, above the EU average of 113%.

Of that amount, €7.32 billion was paid and €6.03 billion was verified, 68.17% and 56.17% of the allocation, respectively. The EU payments average is 63%.

If €763.17 million from REACT EU and €597.56 million added to the Rural Development Programme are added to the original allocation, the total allocation by 2023 amounts to €12.09 billion.

Between 2013 and 24 March 2022, Croatia received from the EU budget HRK 49.06 billion more than it paid into it. When the advance paid for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is included, Croatia is HRK 55.19 billion in the black, the ministry said.

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April the 3rd, 2021 - The Croatian ferry company Jadrolinija has joined in with a European Union (EU) project called E-Chain, which deals with the advancement of ticket sale processes and much more.

As Morski writes, the Croatian ferry company Jadrolinija has announced its participation in the aforementioned European Union project, created in cooperation with Interrg Italy - Croatia, E-Chain (Enhanced Connectivity and Harmonisation of data for the Adriatic Intermodal Network).

The Interreg E-Chain ​​project represents cooperation between Italy and Croatia and brings together ten partners from across both Croatia and Italy. The leading partner of the project is the Municipality of Ancona, and the other partners are Amateurs of Interestate S.R.L., Brusutti S.R.L., G.M.T. S.P.A., the University of Trieste, Prosoft d.o.o., the Croatian ferry company Jadrolinija, the City of Split, Rathmann d.o.o. and the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies.

This means that this project seeks to develop innovative software (the E - Chain platform) for the management of intermodal transport services in port areas that would integrate passenger carriers into one interconnected network.

Such a network would improve the ticketing system through the integration of several passenger carriers, enable the improvement of the quality of service for passengers, speed up the transfer of travel-related information, and also work to open up more new marketing tools and collaborations.

E-Chain will test and develop these services at selected pilot locations - in Venice, Ancona and in Split.

The Croatian ferry company Jadrolinija is a partner in this project as a shipping company that has been connecting the Italian and Croatian coastlines for many years now, and this is an opportunity to improve the service even more.

The duration of the project is 30 months; from January the 1st, 2019 to June the 30th, 2021. The total project budget for the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka stands at 181,942.60 euros, while the total value of the project is 2,307,748.45 euros. The project is otherwise being co-financed from the Interreg program V-A Italy Croatia 2014 - 2020.

For more on Croatia's participation in various EU projects, follow our lifestyle section.

Since the beginning of this year, Croatia has withdrawn about five billion kuna from European funds.

150 million kuna available for new EU projects.