Croatia, as a candidate country, benefits from all three pre-accession financial instruments: Phare for institution-building and economic and social cohesion, ISPA for environment and transport infrastructures and SAPARD for agricultural and rural development. Croatia also remains eligible for the CARDS Regional Programme in 2005 and 2006. Pre-accession financing will amount to €105 million in 2005 (Phare: €80 million, ISPA: €25 million) and €140 million in 2006 (Phare: €80 million, ISPA: €35 million, SAPARD: €25 million). This represents a substantial increase in overall EC assistance compared to the amounts foreseen under CARDS for 2005 (€60 million) and 2006 (€62 million).

The European Partnership, adopted by Council on 13 September 2004 and based on the findings of the Commission’s Opinion on Croatia’s application for membership identifies short and medium term priorities for Croatia’s preparation for further integration within the EU. The Croatian authorities agreed that these priorities are used to identify the key areas for EU pre-accession financial assistance for 2005. Among the European Partnership short and medium term priorities, the existing CARDS programmes 2002-2004 are already addressing a high number of priorities. A programming principle is therefore to provide continuity in assistance while at the same time avoiding any overlaps between CARDS and Phare.

An overall amount of €257 million was committed to Croatia in the CARDS programme between 2001 and 2004.

A total of 29 twinning tenders and contracts for a total amount of €23 million are at the moment being implemented in Croatia.

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