Croatia has met all the necessary conditions and as of next year it will be able to start drawing funds from a new European Union pre-accession fund, the Secretary State of the Croatian Ministry of Finance, Ante Zigman, said on Thursday.
"Croatia was the first to sign the Framework Agreement, which will be ratified by the Croatian Parliament by the end of this month, and has prepared all four operational programs, so it will be able to start using funds in 2008," Zigman told reporters in Brussels where he was attending a two-day seminar on the use of the new instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA), organized by the European Commission.
All IPA beneficiaries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey - were invited to the seminar.
Some EUR 16 billion has been earmarked for the IPA for the next seven years. Croatia will be allowed to draw EUR 590 million over the next four years, the largest per-capita amount when compared to the other beneficiaries.
The IPA program consists of five components -- assistance in transition and institutional development, trans-border cooperation, regional cooperation, development of human resources, and rural development. (Hina)