Brussels, 05/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - When she met President of the Republic of Croatia Stjepan Mesic, his Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and other members of government at the start of this week, Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner discussed preparations for the opening of accession negotiations with the EU on regional policy, and also on progress in setting up management and control systems for pre-accession financial assistance. Assuring the Croatian authorities of the support of the Commission on these issues, Ms Hübner also stressed how important it was for Croatia to have the institutional, administrative and budgetary capacity in place to ensure full participation in EU cohesion policy and respect of all the requirements in the related regulations.
A Commission press release notes that (1) between 2005 and 2006, Croatia received €240 million through the European CARDS programme (assistance for reconstruction, development and stabilisation) to strengthen democratic institutions and put in place the reforms needed to align the country with EU standards; (2) between 2005-2006, Croatia received about €245 million from the EU's pre-accession instruments PHARE (integration of the Roma minority into Croatian society), SAPARD (specific accession programme for agriculture and rural development) and ISPA (pre-accession structural instrument) to strengthen its institutional capacity, and to develop its rural areas and its transport and environment infrastructure; (3) from 2007 until its accession, Croatia will be supported by the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). (gb)