Gov't satisfied with rate of absorption of Schengen Facility funds

In the past three and a half years Croatia has absorbed 97.33% of the EUR 120 million made available to it by the so-called Schengen Facility to meet conditions for admission to the Schengen passport-free travel area, which is one of the country's strategic goals, and Croatian government is very much satisfied with the work done so far.

The Schengen Facility for Croatia was introduced concurrently with the country's accession to the EU to finance measures to be implemented on the new EU borders, enforcement of the Schengen law and external border control.

By the end of this year an evaluation will be done of the ten objectives of that facility.

The Schengen area covers 22 countries and enables the passport-free movement of more than 400 million Europeans. It records 1.25 billion journeys annually.

Speaking at a presentation dedicated to the completion of the absorption of funds from the Schengen Facility on Thursday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that Croatia's admission to the Schengen area was "the next important political step."

The goals of the Schengen Facility include the procurement of technical equipment for the control of external borders, streamlining and development of the system of radio-communication for external border control, development and upgrading of information systems and computer networks, construction, renovation and upgrading of the existing border infrastructure, strengthening of border police competencies, development of a visa information system and connecting to the EU's Visa Information System.

The EU gave Croatia a six-month extension of the deadline for the absorption of funds from the Schengen Facility and the extension expired on January 21. The extension has resulted in a better absorption rate, which previously was EUR 86 million or 71%, which put Croatia in the last place. Now it is in fifth place, having absorbed EUR 116.79 million, with Poland leading the way, followed by Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania. Bulgaria is at the bottom of the ranking, with the absorption rate of 79.62%, according to Plenkovic.

Like Plenkovic, Minister of the Interior Vlaho Orepic, too, underlined the importance of admission to the Schengen area and the control of the state border, noting that Croatia had done an exceptionally good job.

Apart from the Interior Ministry, another beneficiary of the Schengen Facility funds was the Foreign Ministry, with Minister Davor Ivo Stier saying that a part of the money was used to equip diplomatic and consular offices.

"More specifically, we used the money to make the necessary adaptations to meet the Schengen criteria in Sarajevo, Moscow, Pristina, Istanbul, Ankara, Belgrade, Tehran, Cairo, Doha and Rabat," Stier said.

The money from the Schengen Facility was used to build transit centres for migrants in Tovarnik and Trilj and nine border police stations, as well as to equip a number of buildings, install video surveillance and technical protection systems, introduce radar and thermal imaging systems on the sea and land border, buy two helicopters equipped with border control equipment, 23 multi-purpose vehicles for border control, and 240 border police vehicles and 11 vessels.

Text: Hina

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