Croatia presented with EC Partnership Agreement

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu on Friday presented Croatia's Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds, Branko Grcic, with the Partnership Agreement between Croatia and the European Commission on the absorption of EU structural and investment funds to boost growth and employment in the period 2014 - 2020 and with the "Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion" for the same period.

Grcic underscored that Croatia had done a huge job in preparing for absorption of funds. He thanked EC services for their prompt response in approving Croatia's documents.

He underscored that Croatia's operational programmes for competitiveness and cohesion and for human resources were amongst the first third of all EU operational programmes to be approved.

Cretu recalled that the 300 million euros from EU funds that Croatia had at its disposal when it joined the EU had grown to around 800 million euros and that the amount would be multiplied by nine by 2020, to virtually 7 billion euros, according to the new EU financial perspective.

Such a high amount, she underscored, requires a large number of good projects primarily focusing on transportation, water supply and management, tourism and support for small and medium businesses - areas that are very important for Croatia.

 

 

Currently, Croatia's absorption rate is around 25 per cent, which is very good considering that you joined the EU just a year and a half ago, Cretu said.

After visiting with Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic the airport in Dubrovnik, which is being expanded, a project that is co-financed by the EU, Cretu expressed her satisfaction with the fact that Croatia's projects were geographically equally dispersed, which she said was a very significant factor in EU policies.

Grcic said that they had informed Cretu in detail about the Peljesac bridge project.

"Upon the completion of the feasibility study, which will show how Croatia's south could best be connected with the rest of the country - and we hope this bridge is the best solution - we hope to launch that project in the months to come with the support of the EU," he said.

That project is not only important to connect Croatian territory but it will meet requirements set by the Schengen Agreement.

"We expect to apply for EU co-financing for the construction of the bridge by autumn," Grcic said, adding that the value of the entire project could be 280 to 300 million euros, the amount mentioned also in the Partnership Agreement and the operational programme to connect south Croatia with the rest of the country.

Asked whether she believed that the bridge was of strategic interest for the EU, Cretu said that in her opinion this was a specific situation in the EU where to get to one part of a country one had to pass through another country that was not an EU member.

This project could be beneficial to surrounding countries as well, for example to Albania, because this is a region that has suffered so much over the past 20 years and in the current time of crisis, and it is necessary to do everything to help the region but not to anyone's detriment, she said.

Cretu added that it was necessary to involve Bosnia and Herzegovina in the discussion and to explain that this was not just a matter of transportation and security but also a symbolic issue of a country's sovereignty.

(Hina) sp

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