Zagreb has to ensure an adequate system for the management of the money and submit documents for projects which it will propose for financing from the European Union funds.
Croatia and the other candidate countries have been set a new condition by the European Commission. They must obtain accreditation for the Decentralised Implementation System, which is expected to ensure adequate management of money coming from the European funds.
"Based on the experience of the 10 new members, the European Commission thinks that only this accreditation guarantees that at the moment of joining a country will be able to manage the funds from the European budget. In this way, Croatia will very early build mechanisms which will enable it to manage the money as it joins the EU," said Cilic.
Responsibility for management of money is thus transferred to the beneficiary country's institutions, which in Croatia's case will be a national fund at the Finance Ministry which is expected to be approved by the European Commission by the end of the year.
The second new condition is that candidate countries must prepare the projects which they propose for financing from the EU funds, which means that when proposing the projects the countries must also submit documents relative to the projects. Cilic said this was because the Commission wanted the funds to be used more swiftly and more efficiently. Previous candidates had six months to prepare documents relative to the projects they proposed for financing.
The funds at Croatia's disposal within the PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programmes in 2005 and 2006 amount to EUR245 million. PHARE is intended for legislative adjustment and strengthening state administration, ISPA for transport and environmental protection, and SAPARD for the development of rural areas.
Based on other countries' experience in using money from the pre-accession funds, Covic underlined the need to pool a sufficient number of experts for the projects and to constantly educate them.