ZAGREB, 29 Oct 2021 - The Croatian parliament amended the Reconstruction Act on Friday, paving the way for simplifying and speeding up the post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb and surrounding counties and removing the bottlenecks that have emerged in the reconstruction process.

The amendments were passed by 76 votes in favour, 7 against and 35 abstentions.

As a result, citizens will no longer be required to cover 20% of the cost of structural reconstruction. In Zagreb, the government will cover 80% of the cost and the City 20%, while in the Banovina region, the cost will be fully covered by the government.

It will no longer be necessary to establish property rights which have until now hampered the reconstruction process, and the ban on disposal of rebuilt property and the obligation to register a lien on the property were revoked.

Public procurement procedures will be accelerated and rules will be adopted on the procurement of goods, services and works whose estimated value is lower than EU limits.

It will be easier to demolish buildings and build new apartment buildings.

Owners of damaged blocks of flats, commercial buildings and family homes will be allowed to perform structural reconstruction work on their own while adhering to the law regulating physical planning and construction. They will then be compensated for the eligible costs of the reconstruction.

Owners will also be able to conduct retrofitting above the level of technical regulations as well as integral reconstruction and then claim financial compensation for eligible costs.

All land title applications for properties damaged in the earthquakes will be processed on fast track.

Opposition: Some solutions are good, some problems remain 

The opposition said that some improvements have been made, that some problems remain.

The dispute between the Construction Ministry and the Reconstruction Fund, namely between  Minister Darko Horvat and Damir Vanđelić, is continuing and it is directly delaying reconstruction, said Peđa Grbin (SDP).

The limits for public procurement have been raised while finance for public buildings has been abolished, which is alarming, added Grbin.

MP Sandra Benčić (Green-Left Bloc) admitted that the amendments added some improvements, but questioned the fact that local government was not allowed to finance reconstruction by taking loans and there were no incentives for self-reconstruction. The greatest risk remains in the area of public procurement, she said.

MP Marija Selak Raspudić (Bridge), said that earthquake damage is estimated at HRK 128 billion, yet only three percent of applications have been resolved.

The Sabor did not uphold a conclusion by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) group which would oblige the government to report to the Sabor every six months on the effects of the post-earthquake reconstruction law.

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ZAGREB, 31 Aug, 2021 - Commenting on the situation with post-earthquake reconstruction, Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević repeated on Tuesday that the current law on post-earthquake reconstruction was inadequate and he welcomed plans to amend it.

Tomašević said that it was up to the government to submit a new bill to the parliament and that his We Can! party would try to help shape it through its deputies in the national parliament.

The mayor warned that property-rights relations, properties that had not been legalised and discrepancies between data in land books and those in cadastral maps constituted a major problem.

He said that he would support proposals that the state fully finance the reconstruction process in order to help expedite procedures related to property-rights relations, noting that those relations would not be as important without the co-financing model, and one could embark on "block by block" reconstruction.

Tomašević said that a call for applications for the lease of city-owned flats to citizens whose properties were damaged in the March 2020 earthquake and who were accommodated in a hostel and in housing containers would be published very soon.

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ZAGREB, Sept 11, 2020 - The Croatian parliament on Friday adopted the act on the post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb and of Krapina-Zagorje and Zagreb Counties, with 124 parliamentary deputies supporting the legislation.

A total of 138 parliamentary deputies participated in the voting, and ten abstained from it, while four voted against.

In the 151-seat parliament, apart from deputies of the 76-strong ruling majority, also some of the Opposition lawmakers voted for the act.

Four parliamentary deputies who are self-isolating voted via video link, which happened for the first time in the Croatian legislature.

Under the act, the government will provide 60% of the funding for the structural reconstruction of private buildings, while local government units and owners will each contribute 20%.

Property owners whose monthly income does not exceed HRK 4,000 and those whose property was worth less than HRK 200,000 on the day of the earthquake will also be entitled to free reconstruction. This will also apply to disabled Homeland War veterans, disabled persons, and welfare beneficiaries who receive maintenance support.

The owners of the property which will be reconstructed under this scheme are not allowed to sell it within five years upon the rebuilding.

The government is supposed to inform the parliament once a year about the process of reconstruction under this act.

26,000 buildings damaged in the 22 March quake

The March 22 earthquake has been the most destructive in the last 100 years and it claimed the life of a young girl in downtown Zagreb.

The damage caused is estimated at HRK 86 billion, which is about 60% of the state budget and surpasses anything Croatia has experienced.

Some 25,000 buildings were damaged in the City of Zagreb, 510 in Zagreb County, and 409 in Krapina-Zagorje County, or nearly 26,000 buildings in total. About 1.5% of them are public buildings and 98.5% are privately owned.

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ZAGREB, July 24, 2020 - The government on Friday sent to parliament a bill on the reconstruction of the Zagreb area after the March earthquake under which, as Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said, the government will cover 60% of the costs and local governments and owners 20% each.

A reconstruction fund will be established to oversee the works, raise money for the reconstruction and serve as a one stop shop for all citizens affected by the quake, he added.

The prime minister recalled that HRK 100 billion had already been ensured for emergency repairs by revising the 2020 budget and from the Environmental Protection Fund, that HRK 41 million had been allocated from the Condensing Boiler Fund, and that the government had paid for the accommodation of people who lost their homes in the quake in a Zagreb student dorm.

A US$ 200 million loan has been agreed with the World Bank, talks are under way on a Council of Europe Development Bank loan, and an application has been submitted to the European Solidarity Fund, said Plenkovic.

Earthquake damage estimated at €11.5 billion

"The earthquake damage is estimated at €11.5 billion, the number of damaged buildings is 25,000, the extent of the earthquake was big, ten seconds of earthquake will no doubt bring ten years of work," he added.

The law is expected to ensure the principles of organised reconstruction under professional regulations so as to preserve Zagreb's historical and artistic value. All interested stakeholders, builders, architects, art historians, conservationists and others were consulted in drafting the bill, which was also put to public consultation, resulting in 400 comments, some of which were incorporated into the bill.

Plenkovic said he wanted the widest possible consensus on the law and for it to be clear, transparent and implementable.

Construction and Physical Planning Minister Darko Horvat said the reconstruction would be a big financial challenge and that the bulk of the expenses would be covered by the state. A detailed programme of measures will be made for the pace of reconstruction, depending on financing.

As for public buildings, he said their reconstruction would be fully covered by the founders.

Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek said the reconstruction would envisage state-of-the-art technology to increase the value of Zagreb's buildings and preserve the cultural and historical aspects.

Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said he hoped the reconstruction would contribute to economic activity in Croatia.

Parliament will debate the bill next week.