Signing the accession treaty with theEuropean Union (EU) and its forthcoming membership to the EUare remarkable opportunities for Croatia to address a numberof economic challenges and join the EU as a competitive andsuccessful economy. The new Croatian government in itsprogram for 2011-2015 seeks higher standards of living forits citizens through sustained economic growth and greatersocial cohesion. Given the legacies from the past, thesetasks will require ambitious and credible policy decisions.Once it joins the EU, Croatia will also have to contributeto the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable andinclusive growth which calls on member states to setnational targets in employment, innovation, education,social inclusion and climate or energy. These targets willalso require concerted efforts in structural reforms by theGovernment of Croatia. A major priority for the coming twoto three years will be to create fiscal space to absorb EUfunds and avoid being a net contributor to the EU. Uponaccession, the EU Structural and Cohesion funds available toCroatia will exceed Euro 1.5 billion a year. At the sametime, Croatia will also be obliged to contribute about680million annually to the EU budget. A number of new memberstates have found it a challenge to access and absorb EUfunds effectively and efficiently. This requires a lot ofpreparatory work to get projects ready now for the time whenEU structural and cohesion funds can be accessed, as theyrepresent a huge increase over pre-accession funds and agreat opportunity to address Croatia's needs intransport and environment, as well as in innovation andmodernization of production.
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