Kroatië ontvangt eerste toetredingssubsidies (51 mln euro) voor milieu en vervoer (en)

The European Commission decided on the first two Financing Memoranda in the environment and transport fields in Croatia. For the first time Croatia is to benefit from the Pre-Accession Instrument for Structural Policies - ISPA, with a grant of more than € 51 million.

ISPA, along with PHARE and SAPARD, is one of the three European Community instruments, which aim to prepare the candidate countries for their future participation to structural and cohesion funds. It supports infrastructure projects in the fields of environment and transport. A total of €60 million has been allocated for Croatia for the period 2005-2006 from ISPA for projects within the country.

The Commission decided on the first two Financing Memoranda for projects in the transport and environment sectors in Croatia with grants of almost € 22.5 and €28.789 million respectively. The total value of these first two projects in Croatia is € 127.4 million, of which the total ISPA contribution amounts to € 51.3 million.

The first project relates to the environmental sector (the Karlovac Water and Wastewater Programme - a project which involves the construction of a new Waste Water Treatment Plant, as well as the extension and modernisation of the town's water and sewerage networks), and the second project relates to railway rehabilitation (the Vinkovci to Tovarnik / State border, involving the comprehensive modernisation of a 38km section of the main Zagreb to Belgrade railway).

The implementation of the referred projects will take place over the period
2005 - 2010.

Background

Launched in 2000, ISPA is one of the three financial instruments (with PHARE and SAPARD) to assist the candidate countries in the preparation for accession to the European Union. Based on the principles that govern the Cohesion Fund, it provides assistance for infrastructure projects in the EU priority fields of environment and transport.
More information is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/funds/ispa/ispa_en.htm