Croatian and European Commission negotiators are completing the bilateral phase of screening for the policy chapter on trans-European networks on Friday.
This is a new policy chapter which did not exist in the previous round of EU enlargement. It refers to cooperation between EU member states in developing energy and transport networks.
In the EU, the development of infrastructure is seen as a prerequisite for strengthening social cohesion, the functioning of the internal market, and homogenous development.
The Croatian chief negotiator for this chapter, Miroslav Kovačić, said it was important for Croatia to make a list of its priorities, identifying major Croatian corridors that are connected to European corridors, for which it could apply for funds from European funds.
"It is realistic to expect that one or two such projects could be co-financed by European funds," Kovačić said, citing the planned construction of a lowland railway line between the northern Croatian Adriatic port city of Rijeka and the Hungarian capital Budapest.
European Corridor 10, running from Salzburg, Austria, to Thessaloniki, Greece, and two branches of Corridor 5, one connecting Budapest with the southern Croatian Adriatic port of Ploče and the other linking Rijeka to Budapest, pass through Croatia.