The Croatian Parliament resumed its session on Friday morning with a debate on two reports on the use of European pre-accession assistance programmes for the period between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012.
Deputy Regional Development and European Funds Minister Jaksa Puljiz said that unlike in the second half of 2011, in the first half of this year Croatia recorded a growth of the rate of contracted European projects and the payment of funds from the EU.
According to the first report, covering the period from 1 July to 31 December 2011, the rate of contracted European programmes was 37.8 percent (of a total of EUR668 million that was available to Croatia.)
The worst situation was recorded in the IPARD programme where the rate of contracted European projects was 15 percent and as much as EUR39 million was returned to the EU budget as no valid projects were submitted.
Puljiz said progress has been made in the first six months of this year. The contracted European projects rate was 50.2 percent, up 12.4 percent from the previous period. Puljiz said that the latest figures, compiled on 16 November, showed that the contracted rate was as high as 59 percent.
Deputies then discussed the reports which all caucuses supporting them. However, deputies of the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) are questioning Croatia's success rate in withdrawing EU funds.
The Croatian People's party (HNS) is confident that withdrawing EU funds is critical for Croatia's development, adding that a certain amount must be used for regional development.
