6Dec

Closing Event of the Project "CroCompete"

Two-year IPA Project CroCompete – Implementing Croatian Competition and State Aid Policies” has been successfully completed this month. The project was aimed at strengthening Croatian Competition and State Aid Policies and improving the knowledge and understanding of the business community, the general public, local authorities and students of benefits that efficient market competition brings to consumers and tax payers.

Competition area was one of the priorities in negotiations on Croatian accession to the European Union. During the two-year period of project implementation the transparency in the field of state aid was increased and mechanisms for protecting competition were improved. 

In the last two years the project activities included 17 seminars for representatives of local government in dozen cities throughout Croatia, two international conferences on competition and two public opinion surveys about competition and state aid matters. The survey showed that business people, students and local authorities are increasingly more familiar with competition and state aid policies in Croatia. In total, project involved 515 students from six Croatian universities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Zadar, Pula), 464 representatives of local government and the business community and 1000 citizens. 

The project CroCompete showed that there are still opportunities for strengthening the capacities for successful implementation of competition and state aid policies, until Croatia becomes a full EU member.  There is still need to continue to inform the local authorities, business community and student population about competition policy and supervision of state aid, in order to prepare themselves better for taking part in the Common market in the near future.