Croatia's 'Competitiveness and Cohesion' programme - December 2018

Subject: Croatia's 'Competitiveness and Cohesion' programme - December 2018

 What is the project selection rate and the financial out-turn under, that is to say, the overall state of implementation of, the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund in Croatia for the 2014-2020 period as at the end of 2018?

 How is the Commission seeking to improve the uptake of funding in Croatia, bearing in mind that Croatia’s performance has been shown in earlier reports to be below average compared with other Member States?

Answer given by Ms Creţu on behalf of the European Commission

(12 April 2019)

1. On 31 December 2018, the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF) was at 60% of total eligible allocation dedicated to specific projects and 18% of the allocation was paid to the beneficiaries. For the Cohesion Fund (CF), project selection stood at 69% of available Cohesion Fund allocation and 8% was paid to the beneficiaries.

2. The Commission is in close contact with the Croatian authorities in charge of the implementation of the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion (OPCC), within the framework of shared management. The Commission provides its assistance in various forms: regular meetings and exchanges; peer-to-peer initiative for exchange of experience with other Member States; trainings (e.g. on public procurement, State aid) in Brussels or in the Member States and JASPERS (1) advisory services for major/big projects financed by the Commission’s technical assistance. The Managing Authority of the OPCC is also participating in the Commission pilot project ‘Frontloading administrative capacity building’. They benefit from tailored hands-on support, provided in close cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

⋅1∙ JASPERS : Joint assistance to Support Projects in European Regions. | | ( | | )