At a news conference which she held together with the head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Croatia, Vincent Degert, Grabar Kitarovic said the IPA programme would be comprised of five components - development of institutions, cross-border cooperation, regional development, human potential development and rural development.
To transfer to the IPA programme, Croatia must meet certain conditions, the minister said. The country needs to set up a central coordinating body for the IPA programme, administrative directorates and implementation agencies for each of the programme's components, accredit the implementation system, negotiate the framework agreement on the implementation of the IPA and draw up programme documents for this project.
EC's 16 representatives from four different administrations are expected to arrive in Zagreb later this afternoon for a two-day visit. They are scheduled to meet government officials whom they will inform about the main elements of the IPA programme.
Degert told reporters Croatia must be well prepared for the challenges it was about to meet after the IPA programme went into force and added that this was also preparation for the future use of EU structural funds.
I believe I can say the European Commission is very satisfied with the current state of affairs, he said.
Degert stressed that the ISPA committee last week approved two projects worth EUR110 million which Croatia proposed as part of the ISPA pre-accession programme for 2005 and 2006. He said the EU would inject more than EUR50 million into the two projects.