Hina - The reconstruction of 14,202 privately owned buildings has been completed and 559 replacement family homes have been built following the 2020 Zagreb and Petrinja earthquakes, Construction Minister Branko Bačić said in parliament on Wednesday, while the SDP criticised the quality of some of the work.
Presenting a 2025 reconstruction report, Bačić said 868 projects financed through the EU Solidarity Fund had also been completed.
He said 176 replacement family homes had been completed last year and that construction of such homes was entering its final phase.
Under the ministry's reconstruction plan, around 1,050 replacement family homes are expected to be built across the areas affected by the two earthquakes.
"According to our plans, construction of replacement family homes will be completed during 2027, while the entire reconstruction process in the Zagreb and Petrinja earthquake zones should be completed by the end of 2030. The final stage will mainly involve the structural reconstruction of apartment buildings," Bačić said.
He said structural reconstruction had been completed on 995 apartment buildings, including 452 last year, while 12,354 buildings had undergone non-structural repairs, 712 of them in 2024.
Bačić said 46 apartment buildings that were not damaged in the earthquakes had also been completed in Sisak-Moslavina County to provide temporary accommodation for residents whose homes were damaged. Once reconstruction on their homes is complete, the buildings will be used for affordable housing.
He said reconstruction of public buildings was continuing in parallel, backed by €1.03 billion from the EU Solidarity Fund.
The total value of reconstruction work carried out so far stands at €4.91 billion, including €2.93 billion in the Zagreb earthquake zone and €1.98 billion in the Petrinja area, Bačić said.
Responding to a question from ruling HDZ lawmaker and Petrinja Mayor Magdalena Komes, Bačić said keys to eight new apartment buildings in Petrinja would be handed over by the end of the month. Together with eight buildings completed at the end of 2023, the town would have 16 new residential buildings with around 300 apartments.
Social Democratic Party lawmaker and former Sisak mayor Kristina Ikić Baniček criticised the quality of reconstruction work on a high-rise building in Petrinja and asked whether contractors would be sanctioned.
Bačić said the project involved structural rather than full reconstruction and that the contractor had been ordered to rectify all defects, which had since been done. Any remaining issues fell within the responsibility of the building's co-owners, he said.
Ikić Baniček said the SDP would not support the report, arguing that state-owned buildings in central Sisak, including the railway station, post office and tax administration building, were still awaiting reconstruction.
She also said a programme for the block-by-block reconstruction of residential buildings, successfully implemented in Zagreb, had twice been cancelled in Sisak and remained unresolved.
She added that some buildings had been reconstructed despite serious defects and that there was no effective mechanism to compensate apartment owners for the damage.
Marin Živković of the opposition We Can! party called for amendments to the law governing post-earthquake reconstruction, saying some residents were required to move out during renovation works but were not entitled to subsidised rent or alternative accommodation because they had not been living in the affected buildings when the earthquakes struck.
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