PROJECTS FOR PRE-ACCESSION EU FUNDS AS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CROATIAN

Croatian path to the EU membership was not and will not be easy. In fulfilling the various conditions that we ultimately provide candidate status, were only the beginning of a long road of transformation and becoming an equal member of the EU. The purpose of this paper is to show the chronological sequence of funds, the possibility of using resources through funds that were offered to Croatia by the Union, but more importantly, the actual utilization of these funds and the effects that they caused, both at national and local level. In the paper was given example for successful application and implementation of the EU project by the Office for International Cooperation and Rural Development of municipality Tovarnik, Nijemci, Tompojevci, Lovas and the city of Ilok, with all its positive sides as well as the challenges faced by the project managers that they met, in order to confirm or deny the way Croatian public looks at the preaccession EU funds and large financial resources intended for Croatia. In the end, we will try to give an overview of the current situation, difficulties that are created on the way to the cohesion and structural funds, and also the challenges that Croatia and its entrepreneural sector still have not found right answer, as well as ways to successfully solving the long-standing differences in the ways of doing business between Croatia and the EU.