Meeting with the Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković had this afternoon at Maximos Palace, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The two leaders discussed the relations between the two countries as well as the progress of the programs under the Recovery and Resilience Fund.

“We had the opportunity this morning, in the context of a very constructive event of the European People’s Party, to exchange views regarding the progress of our programs under the Recovery and Resilience Fund. And I think it was a very useful meeting. Also, in view of the European elections, I think it is important to be able to show European citizens that European resources are being used correctly.

We also have the opportunity to review our excellent bilateral relations. Let me congratulate you once again on the significant progress Croatia has made with regard to the Schengen area, the euro and the fact that your economy is doing particularly well. It is always my pleasure to welcome you to Athens and I hope you have a nice day. The weather is very pleasant” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

For his part, the Prime Minister of Croatia stated: “Thank you very much, dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear Kyriako. I greet your entire delegation. It is indeed a great honor to be once again in Athens and I thank you for hosting both our meeting today and the conference, in which I think we both managed to focus on the actions we have taken together at the level of the European Union and in which we were very serious and committed to exploiting it NextGenerationEU as one of the very important tools intended to stimulate our economy after the Covid-19 pandemic. And as evidenced by the numbers, in terms of funding in relation to GDP, in the projects implemented, both Greece and Croatia, countries with pro-European governments, not only make very good use of NextGenerationEU resources but this has a substantial imprint on public investments and in general on the effort to recover from the crisis.

Also, thank you for your support regarding Croatia’s accession to the Schengen zone last year, as well as to the eurozone. I believe that NextGenerationEU proves that countries like Greece and Croatia can really make a difference by properly using EU resources based on national planning and leveraging national resources at the same time,” he concluded.