The amendment ushers in additional EUR 253 million for the OP 2014-2020 under the first tranche of React-EU funding. Slovenia has been prepared to use the additional resources under React-EU since the beginning of the year; the country approved six major projects already in the first half of 2021. In February 2021, a EUR 3.6 million project Covid-19 – Relocation of the Department for Pulmonary Diseases to the University Medical Centre Maribor received a contribution of EUR 3.6 million from the European Regional Development Fund; in March, there was a further EUR 4.5 million injection for the project Covid-19 - Hospital renovation to extend capacities of Ljubljana Intermediate Care Department; in May, EUR 1.5 million were approved for the project Covid-19 – IT supported vaccination appointment scheduling system for primary-level facilities and end of May 2021, a Call for proposals for co-financing investment into infrastructure to strengthen resilience of institutional care facilities by taking into account the deinstitutionalisation efforts worth EUR 93 million was launched as part of the country’s efforts to enhance the resilience of the long-term care system. In mid-June, EUR 30 million were made available under the call for proposals Incentives for digital transformation of SMEs (P4D React EU) with a further EUR 50 million for the project Covid-19 - Comprehensive energy-efficient renovation of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana.  

That’s some great news for Slovenia's post-Covid-19 recovery efforts in just a few days. On 1 July, just a day earlier, the European Commission gave green light to Slovenia's Recovery and Resilience Plan, a document that foresees a total of EUR 2.5 billion in support under the Recovery and Resilience Facility comprising EUR 1.8 billion in grants and EUR 705 million in loans.