Croatia is completely ready for the allocation of money from European Union funds, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds, Branko Grcic, said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Croatia has been given access to 1.12 billion euros in all EU programmes, of which 806 million or 72% has been approved through projects, according to Grcic.
Commenting on remarks about the failure to prepare projects for the absorption of funding from EU funds, Grcic said that Croatia was completely ready for the absorption of those funds, citing ongoing EU-funded projects worth 300 million euros in total and ongoing tenders for projects worth 483 million euros in all.
Among those projects are the water supply systems in Porec and Osijek and the reconstruction of the Dugo Selo-Krizevci railway line, which together are twice as valuable as the Zagreb Airport project, the minister said.
Commenting on fears that Croatia might have a negative score this year concerning its payments into the EU budget, Grcic said that the score would be positive, namely 18 million euros on the plus side. With payments for 2013 to be made in 2014, the total plus would be 168 million euros, he added.
Grcic said he expected 2014 to be better, with a positive score of between 250 million and 300 million euros.
(Hina)
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