The highest amount of funds, i.e. 260 million EUR, has been awarded to Croatia from CARDS programme. CARDS programme has been launched in 2000 as the unique instrument of assistance which has replaced other mechanisms of assistance assigned to the Eastern Europe.
Furthermore, Croatia has received 132,6 million EUR from PHARE programme, which was established in1989 as pre-accession instrment assigned to the candidate countries from the Central and Eastern Europe.
Considering the ISPA programme (pre-accession programme for infrastructure projects for transport and environmental protection), Croatia has received 60 million EUR. From SAPARD programme (programme for agricultural development) Croatia has been awarded 25 million EUR. The value of contribution from PHARE CBC programme, established for the purpose for improvement of cross border cooperation has been in the amount of 12 million EUR.
Concerning the period from 2001 to 2006, Croatia has been awarded the highest value of assistance from pre-accession funds in the amount of 127,1 million EUR.
The new pre-accession instrument which consolidate all current programmes is called IPA, as stated in the briefing. IPA is consisted of five components, which are actually the extension of the current programmes.
The primary goals of IPA are provision of assistance to the candidate countries and potential candidates in harmonisation with acquis communatauire and its implementation, as well as the preparation for utilization of Structural and Cohesion funds.
According to the presented data, Croatia has been awarded 589,9 EUR from IPA programme for the period from 2007 to 2010. The highest amount has been received from IPA Regional Development Component, followed by \”Transitional Assistance and Institution Building Component\” 178,1 million EUR.
From the Central Finance and Contracting Agency it was mentioned that Croatia has submitted the request to the European Commission for conferral of management of funds from IPA Components with the exception of IPARD (the extension of SAPARD programme). The Commission Decision of Croatia\’s readiness for management of IPA programme is expected by November.
