Polish state officials said on Monday that their country was willing to share with Croatia its experience in absorbing European Union funds, while Croatian officials said that such assistance would be valuable. They were speaking at a conference on regional development and EU funds in the southern coastal city of Split.
Addressing the conference, the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds Management, Branko Grcic, said that the Polish experiences were welcome because Croatia would have a considerably higher amount of EU funds at its disposal after it joins the bloc on 1 July 2013.
"In the second half of 2013, we expect 450 million euros from EU funds, and during 2014 EUR 1.8 billion. This is a huge amount of money and we should be prepared for it," the Croatian minister said.
Grcic expressed dissatisfaction with the absorption of EU funds during the term of the previous government led by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). He said that only 37% of agreements on the use of EU pre-accession funds had been signed while the HDZ was in power.
Grcic said that currently 350 employees were working on improving Croatia's preparedness to draw EU funds and that their number should be doubled at least.
"We are negotiating with the European Commission to set up a single managing body for the use of EU funds," Grcic said, announcing a possibility of Croatia changing its regional organisation to ensure the even use of EU funds.
According to him, Croatia will decide on its possible new regional and administrative division in cooperation with the European Commission, and will take into account Poland's example.
The Speaker of the Polish Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, said that in the run-up to its accession to the EU Poland had reduced the number of its voivodeships (provinces) from 49 to 16.
Croatia is entering the EU at the last minute and it seems that this will be the last enlargement after which the EU doors will be shut for a longer period, he said, adding that Poland advocates further enlargement to include other southeastern European countries.
The Polish Minister of Regional Development, Elzbieta Bienkowska, advised Croatia to make plans for rational consumption of EU funds.
We in Poland use EU funds rationally so as to avert the crisis and we have not experienced the recession. We pursue our own regional policy, which means that for the development of our regions we use between 50-60% of funds from the EU and secure the remainder from our own sources, the Polish minister said.
During the conference, the Croatian association of counties and the Polish association of provinces signed a declaration on cooperation.
