Speaking at European Social Fund Day, an event organised by the Croatian labour ministry, he said Croatia had much more money available at the ESF this year than it had until now through the IPA programme and its component for the human potential development, praising the cooperation with Croatia and the ministry so far.
Kazatsay said the European Commission saw the importance of the ESF in Croatia and that there was plenty of room to cooperate in handling issues on the labour market, notably the rising unemployment, lack of advanced training, and the deteriorating social situation.
He voiced confidence that he would sign an agreement with the government on the use of money from the ESF by July 19 at the latest.
He said Croatia must not allow young people to account for more than 50 per cent of the jobless, as this was dangerous for the development of state and society, and that it must urgently improve its policies and align educational programmes with labour market demand.
Those issues should be solved through investments from the ESF in projects aimed at strengthening the capacity of labour market institutions, employment, self-employment, advanced training, and educational programmes, as well as internal reforms to strengthen the social environment and social dialogue, on which Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic is working, said Kazatsay.
Mrsic was unable to attend today's event because of negotiations with several unions.
His assistant Dario Baron recalled that during the EU accession negotiations, in cooperation with the IPA fund, Croatia carried out numerous projects to strengthen the administrative capacities of labour market institutions, employment and education totalling EUR 109 million.
In the 2014-20 period, Croatia will have about EUR 150 million at its disposal from the ESF per year, which Baron said should be used for employment programmes for young people and the jobless.
As part of European Social Fund Day, a fair was held at Zagreb's Cvjetni Trg square featuring educational and other projects being implemented and co-financed from the IPA.