The signing of contracts for the EUR 46.57 million CARDS 2004 programme ended last week and Croatia agreed on projects worth EUR 44.06 million, Zigman told a news conference.
The announcement of tenders and the signing of contracts for projects from the CARDS 2004 programme was carried out independently by the Finance Ministry and the 90% rate of utilisation of the funds is a very good result, because the procurement procedure was carried out in line with EU regulations, Zigman said.
Along with those projects, the EC Delegation to Croatia carried out, within the CARDS 2004 programme, procedures for projects worth EUR 30.42 million, of which 30.41 million or 99.96 percent was used, Zigman said.
The overall utilisation rate of the CARDS 2004 programme is 96.71 percent, Zigman said, dismissing objections Opposition deputies made in a parliamentary debate in April on whether the government should be called to account over the low utilisation rate of EU funds.
Zigman said that the first data on the utilisation of funds could be released only after the expiry of the deadline for the signing of contracts, while complete data would be released only after the contracts were implemented.
The deadline for the drawing of funds from the CARDS 2004 programme is the end of 2009, Zigman said.
Most of the funds for the agreed projects from the CARDS 2004 programme refer to the procurement of commodities (EUR12.26 million) and twinning projects (EUR 10.38 million), and most funds were granted to the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development (EUR12.15 million) and the Ministry of the Interior (EUR10.36 million).
A new pre-accession fund, IPA, has been available in Croatia since the start of this year and it will replace the CARDS programme, as well as the PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programmes.
A total of EUR 589.9 million is intended for Croatia within the IPA programme in the 2007-2010 period.
The first operational programmes within IPA have already been sent to Brussels and they are expected to be approved in September and October, while the first contracts and the drawing of funds are expected next year, the Finance Ministry said.