Grcic made the statement at a presentation of operational programmes for the absorption of EU funds in the 2007-13 period.
Asked by reporters to explain, he said Croatia's payment into the EU budget for the second half of this year was about EUR 240 million, while EU payments to Croatia should amount to about EUR 246 million.
The EU payments are based on active projects financed from the IPA pre-accession fund, a EUR 75 million cash flow which Croatia will receive as direct support to its budget, another EUR 40 million from a fund to prepare Croatia for Schengen to be paid this year, and payments based on projects from the second half of this year.
Asked if he was satisfied with those extra EUR 6 million, Grcic said he would be much more satisfied if Croatia also received an advance payment of EUR 150 million for projects launched this year. He added, however, that Croatia would have to wait for early next year for that money given that its institutions were still being accredited.
Croatian institutions participating in the absorption of EU funds are hiring 205 people to complete their accreditation, which should be completed in a couple of months, the minister said.
Grcic said the operational programmes - for transport, environmental protection, regional competitiveness, and human resources - were the basis for absorbing EUR 450 million reserved for Croatia in the 2007-13 period. The European Commission adopted them in September and October, which created the conditions to call for tenders.
Grcic said that was just the introduction into the key phase of absorption of structural and cohesion funds, of which Croatia is expected to receive EUR 8.3 billion in the 2014-20 period.
He went on to say that Croatia would spend most of 2014 planning for the new budget period and the key document for that, the Partner Agreement, should be submitted to the European Commission for adoption in March 2014. The deadline for the operational programmes stemming from the agreement is next July.
Reporters asked Grcic to comment on some counties' dissatisfaction with a new regional development plan envisaged by a new regional development bill. He reiterated that the planning areas envisaged by the bill were not formal administrative regions and that counties remained the fundamental regional administrative units.
He would not comment on the forecasts of seven macroeconomists polled by Hina, who predict that the Croatian economy weakened 0.4 per cent in the third quarter year on year. He just said the operational programmes presented today would help Croatia overcome the crisis more quickly.