03.06.2020.
By the end of the year, the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund is planning to award to the citizens and economy through public calls and calls for proposals more than HRK 600 million. “After our programmes have been on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, during June the Fund has officially resumed all planned activities. By the end of the year, we are planning to award to the citizens and economic operators more than 600 million kunas of grant funding,” announced the director of the Fund, Siniša Kukić.
The Fund has adjusted part of the planned activities to the current situation, with one of the priorities being remediation of damage form the earthquake. This means that the citizens of Zagreb, Zagreb County and Krapina-Zagorje County whose houses and apartments were damaged in the earthquake will be able to get up to HRK 8000 for the purchase of condensing boilers. They will be able to apply online using the application form on the Fund’s website, and the public call will be opened on Wednesday next week. After the Croatian Government adopted the Amendments to the Programme, it is expected that the call for energy renovation of family houses will continue. The public call with all terms and conditions for co-financing will be opened in late June, and the citizens will have enough time to compile and prepare all the necessary documentation during the summer, because the official online submission of applications will begin in early September. The percentage of co-financing will be 60% for all citizens, while for the vulnerable groups of citizens the Fund will fully finance the renovation. The local social welfare centres will propose and prepare the list of priority houses in their area. Separate public calls will be opened for the use of renewable energy sources in households and public institutions, and family farms.
In late June and first half of July, the Fund will continue co-financing the purchase of electric vehicles. HRK 22 million will be allocated for the citizens, and the same amount for legal persons, while HRK 10 millions will be invested in the co-financing of EV charging stations. The application procedure will be similar to that in previous years, and the subsidies for e-vehicles will amount to up to 70 thousand kunas. To promote further development of sustainable mobility, in September it is planned to invite the public call for co-financing energy-efficient public transport vehicles using alternative fuels worth HRK 100 million, and the call for promoting the projects of integrated and smart traffic and alternative fuels infrastructure development worth HRK 30 million.
The activities in the environmental protection sector will also continue, including not only utility infrastructure on the islands, but also the transport of waste from the islands to the mainland. Also, as the national beneficiary of the project for the procurement of containers for separate waste collection financed form the Structural Funds, the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund will continue with the procurement of more than one million containers for separate waste collection of different sizes and volumes and supplying them to the Croatian towns and municipalities.