The topic of the meeting was the possibility of including operating costs as eligible costs for projects funded by the European Union, as proposed in the AmCham’s position paper “Proposals for Determining the Strategic Guidelines of the Multiannual Financial Framework for the Digitalization of Croatia”.

AmCham recommends that eligible costs of upcoming projects to be funded through the Recovery and Resilience Facility under the Next Generation EU instrument, as well as the Multiannual Financial Framework, include not only all capital investments in private cloud solutions but also the operating costs of public and hybrid cloud solutions (XaaS), Internet of Things communications and infrastructure (IoT). Such an approach has already been adopted in several Member States such as Spain, Malta, and Latvia. Cloud solutions are an important part of digital transformation projects, which should not be limited to investments in infrastructure.

AmCham calls on all bodies in the management and control system (MCS) in Croatia to consider the operating costs of the cloud solutions in public and private sector digital transformation projects justified in their entirety based on the principles of ownership and longevity of investments.

Minister Tramišak welcomed the proposal of AmCham and pointed out that it is important to enable, through the coming financial perspective, the financing of business models that will provide the development of the economy and public administration.

The Ministry of Regional Development and European Union Funds and AmCham have agreed to continue cooperation on this issue in the continuation of the programming period of projects to be financed from European funds.