Photo: Medjimurje, northern Croatia. xbrchx / Shutterstock
Croatia joined the EU on 1 July 2013, in the middle of a complex reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. The new Member State status created new possibilities related to EU agriculture and fishery funds for all the potential Croatian beneficiaries, in particular farmers and fishermen. Croatia requested the support of the Twinning tool to strengthen the capacity of its institutions in charge of implementing the 2014-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fishery Policy.
The project purpose was to strengthen the internal capacities of the Paying Agency for Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development (PAAFRD) and achieve its readiness for smooth transition and uninterrupted functioning in implementation of support schemes in agriculture, fisheries and rural development fully in compliance with EU rules and regulations in the post-2013 period. This, in turn, would ensure controllability of measures, increase the effectiveness and efficiency with necessary adaptations of new tools of the CAP and CFP. Moreover, this project assisted the adjustment of the accredited part of the PAAFRD for implementation of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) schemes envisaged for the post-2013 period and assisted the preparation for accreditation of the PAAFRD for implementation of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) schemes.
Italian and Polish Experts provided advice to the Croatian officials during the preparation of the implementing procedures and selected staff has been trained to be trainers (Training of Trainers) on relevant aspects of CAP and CFP implementation. Potential final beneficiaries and other stakeholders have been informed on 2014-2020 CAP and CFP and on the related benefits.
This Twinning covered a wide range of different topics, such as direct payments and rural development measures in agriculture and investment measures in fishery sector.
- The main achievement has been the completion of preparation of procedures for the implementation of Direct Payments and Rural Development measures as well as Fishery measures. Further achievement has been the increased capacity of the beneficiary institutions with more than 100 fully trained staff members.
- Workshops and info-conferences conducted in the 21 Croatian counties have also informed stakeholders and beneficiaries about the new CAP and CFP policies and about the possibilities to have access to EU agricultural and fishery funds.
- A network between project partners has been established and good relations developed to last beyond the end of the project.
Project title: Preparation of Croatian Paying Agency for the post 2013 period in CAP and CFP implementation
Project ID: HR 11 IB AG 01, 2014-2016