Newspapers in Croatia recently reported that Croatia could count on 250-280 million euros from EU pre-accession funds in the next two years.
It would be risky and too early to talk about the exact amount, because the Commission has not yet put forward its proposal, said Dirk Meganck, director in the European Commission's directorate-general for enlargement. He said he had recently seen in the Croatian press speculations about annual funds of EUR250 million.
He stressed, however, that he was talking on his own behalf and not as a representative of the European Commission, and added that the Commission would soon move a pre-accession strategy for Croatia which would have to be approved by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.
Meganck and David Daly, in charge of western Balkan countries in the European Commission's general directorate for foreign affairs, are at the helm of a European delegation on a three-day visit to Zagreb to discuss the use of EU pre-accession funds.
By winning EU candidate status, Croatia has also won access to the three EU funds the purpose of which is to assist countries preparing for EU membership. Those programmes are PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD. The PHARE programme aims at assisting the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. ISPA is aimed at assisting infrastructure projects in the field of environment and transport. The Special Accession Programme for Agriculture & Rural Development (SAPARD) aimes at helping EU candidate countries deal with the problems of the structural adjustment in their agricultural sectors and rural areas, as well as in the implementation of the acquis communautaire concerning the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and related legislation. It is designed to address priorities identified in the Accession Partnerships.
Croatian European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic told a news conference that Croatia was conducting extensive preparations so as to be able to make the most of those funds. Grabar Kitarovic said that several strategic documents were being drafted as part of those preparations -- a national development plan, a pre-accession economic programme, national strategies on environmental protection and traffic and a rural development strategy.
Croatia will be able to access funds from ISPA, SAPARD and PHARE in 2005 and 2006, that is, until the end of the EU's current seven-year financial plan.
The European Commission proposed on Wednesday that the current three pre-accession programmes be combined into one for the next budgetary period between 2007 and 2013. The new programme would be intended for candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey) and potential candidates (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania).