The European Commission has cleared Slovenia's plan to take a portion of EU funding originally intended for improving resilience to economic crises and spend it on flood relief measures.

The country will have €265 million available to reduce flood risks and risks from other climate-related disasters, of which €45 million in grants and €220 million in loans.

Following the catastrophic floods in early August, Slovenia asked Brussels for additional loans from what is called the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Under the approved changes to its national Recovery and Resilience Plan, the country now has €1.07 billion available in loans after it initially asked for EUR 705 million, said the Recovery and Resilience Office, a national coordination unit responsible for the implementation of the facility in Slovenia.

The additional loans will be spent in mitigating flood risk, improving the capacity of rail infrastructure, including infrastructure hit by the early August floods, and investment in sustainable renovation of buildings.

Besides the loans, the changed plan also entails €1.61 billion in grants from the same facility.

The Commission said the national plan is now even more focussed on the green transition as it raises the share of funds for climate goals from 42.5% to 48.9%.

At the same time it still significantly contributes to the digital transition, although the share of digital measures has dropped slightly, from 21.4% to 20%.

EU member states now have four weeks to endorse the national plans, and, once they are approved, Slovenia will be able to ask for €24 million in advance financing.