In Brussels, Croatians informed European Commission officials of the level of adjustment of the national legislation to EU standards in this sector.
The European Union allocates about one third of its budget for regional policy, i.e. for reducing differences in the development of regions.
Croatia may draw about 130 million euros annually from three pre-accession 2005 and 2006 programmes for this purpose.
The Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics has proposed that Croatia be divided into two statistical regions - Continental and Adriatic Croatia.
This topic is currently being discussed with the European Commission and there is a possibility that the country could be divided into three statistical regions.
The most important criteria for defining statistical areas is the number of residents and economic and social criteria.
"It is important for a region to be homogenous so that it is more easy to make growth projections," a Croatian negotiator told Hina in Brussels on Friday.