Under the law, the shares were transferred to the Fund free of charge.
The shares had not been transferred until now, given that the last condition was met only recently, namely when the company that will mange the fund was selected, it was said at the government session.
The government also indefinitely extended the deadline by which the government would give its share of revenues from the income and profit taxes to local self-government units in the areas of special state concern and hilly and mountainous regions.
The areas of special state concern include 180 local self-government units. There are 45 self-government units in hilly and mountainous regions with the population of some 900,000.
Last year, the government transferred 1.1 billion kuna to those areas this way, Finance Minister Ivan Suker said.
At its session today, the government also supported the signing of a memorandum of consent to set up a national fund between Croatia and the European Commission.
The memorandum defines a system which needs to be established in order to use pre-accession funds (PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD). A separate implementation agreement will be signed for each programme.